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Only released in EOL distros:   indigo

About

The carl_tools package contains miscellaneous functionality and tools for the CARL robot. This currently includes an automatic calibration system for the transforms between CARL's sensors and their respective mounts, and an arm current logger.

Nodes

camera_external_calibration

This node automatically determines transformations between CARL's depth sensors and their respective mounts.

Subscribed Topics

asus_marker_tracker/ar_pose_marker (ar_track_alvar_msgs/AlvarMarkers)

• AR marker poses detected from the Asus camera.

Published Topics

asus_controller/command (std_msgs/Float64)

• Send position commands to the Asus servo controller.

Parameters

calibration_marker_id (int, default: 200)

• ID number for the calibration AR marker.

current_logger

Log currents on the JACO arm and finger joints to a text file.

Subscribed Topics

jaco_arm/joint_states (sensor_msgs/JointState)

• Arm joint states.

Parameters

filename (string, default: "arm_currents.txt")

• Name of file to save currents to. If the file already exists, it new current readings will be appended to the end of the file, otherwise it will create the file.

Installation

To install the carl_bot package, you can install from source with the following commands:

•    1 cd /(your catkin workspace)/src
     2 git clone https://github.com/WPI-RAIL/carl_bot.git
     3 cd ..
     4 catkin_make
     5 catkin_make install
  

Startup

External camera calibration can be started with the following launch command:

• roslaunch carl_tools camera_external_calibration.launch

Optionally, an rviz interface for visualizing the calibration process and final calculated transforms can be launched with:

• roslaunch carl_tools view_calibration.launch

Current logging can be started by running the current_logger node, with an optional parameter for the output file name (replace <output_filename>), and it will continue to log currents until the node is terminated.

• rosrun carl_tools current_logger _filename:=<output_filename>

Calibration Procedure

To calibrate the cameras, first make sure a unique AR tag is placed in a known location with respect to the robot. By default, the calibration node expects a maximum size (12 cm) AR marker with ID 200 centered on the screw holes of CARL's top plate. Once this marker is placed and unobstructed, simply launch the calibration node and wait. When the transform is calculated, further instructions will be provided in the terminal where the node was launched.