Powering on the Ridgeback

Power Button

Power Button
E-reset Button

E-reset Button
Release Switch

Release Switch

  • Ensure the emergency buttons on all 4 corners are released.

    ◦ To check if the emergency switch is released, twist the switch in the indicated direction on it. If it pops up, then the switch has successfully been released.

  • Press the power button on the rear of the ridgeback. It has the power symbol.

  • Once the ridgeback is powered on and all the switches have been released, press the e-reset button. It is on the rear where the ridgeback has a yellow flashing light.

Powering on the UR5e Arm

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UR5e should be in, i.e. it is in remote mode and on power off state

  • The UR5e should only be powered on when the ridgeback is fully powered on (i.e. the ridgeback has white lights infront and/or the yellow light is flashing for the e-reset).

  • The UR5e can be powered on via the teach pendants power button.

  • It may take upto a few minutes for the UR5e to startup.

  • Ensure all the emergency switches are released (i.e. on the teach pendant as well as on the lift).

Teach pendant Switch

Teach pendant Switch Released
Custom Emergency Switch

Custom Emergency Switch Released

Warning

Do not start anything else in the UR5e as this is all done automatically via ROS. Powering on is only required.

Powering Auxiliary Components

On startup the ridgeback launches, the lift drivers, and the Hokuyos. The auxiliary components such as the ouster, dynamixels, realsense cameras, nvidia, etc. are not powered on startup automatically but can be added via the startup launch file if required.

Teleop Control — PS4 Controller

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PS4 Controller

  1. PS button is to power on.

  2. X + Up arrow is for moving Lift up. (X is the square icon)

  3. X + Down arrow is for moving Lift down. (X is the square icon)

  4. B button for releasing Lift soft locks. (B is the circle icon)

  5. L1 is the dead man’s switch.

  6. LJ is to move in x and y direction.

  7. RJ is to move in the yaw orientation.

Teleop Control — Steamdeck Controller

Warning

The Steamdeck usage is in experimental phase. Loss of connection or (laggy connection) may lead to the robot moving and/or not stopping immediately. Caution should be taken when using the Steamdeck for the operation of the robot!

Steamdeck - Basic Controls

  1. Power button is on the top of the Steamdeck with the power symbol.

  2. R2 for mouse left-click

  3. L2 for mouse right-click

  4. Left trackpad for mouse scrolling

  5. Right trackpad for mouse movement

  6. L2+R2 for middle mouse button click

  7. The 3 dashes button is located on the top right of the Steamdeck next to the Y button, Hold for 3 seconds to gamepadmode and hold for 3 seconds again to go to desktop mode(Switching to desktop mode activates the cursor for the trackpad as well).

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Steamdeck Controller

Steamdeck - Initialization with Robot

Before usage:

  1. Ensure the Steamdeck is connected to the robot’s WiFi access point.

  2. Ensure the robot is powered on and operational.

  3. Single tap the Joystick Launcher on the screen to activate the controller for the robot. (Do not open multiple instances of the joystick launchers, as this can cause zombie nodes).

  4. Single tap the Rviz2 Launcher on the screen to visualize the robot.

Steamdeck - Robot Controls

  1. L1 is the dead man’s switch for slow speed.

  2. R1 is the dead man’s switch for high speed.

  3. LJ is to move in x and y direction.

  4. RJ is to move in yaw direction.

  5. X+Up Arrow is to move lift up.

  6. X+Down Arrow is to move lift down.

  7. B is to release soft switches if the lift reaches maximum height.

Steamdeck - Rviz2 Controls

  1. L2+R2 should be held when wanting to move the orbit in the xy plane.

  2. R2 should be held to orbit around the orbits origin

  3. Left trackpad can be moved up and down to zoom in and zoom out.

Manipulator Activation

Once the UR5e is powered on and its emergency switches are released.

  • Then check if the UR5e is in remote mode (should be in remote mode by default) — Located in Teach pendant Top right.

  • Then check if the UR5e is in Power off state with a icon — Located in Teach pendant Bottom left (Important).

Auxiliary ROS Drivers

Once the manipulator is activated, next step is to launch the following driver:

roslaunch mmp_startup accessories.launch

This should turn on all the components including the UR5e, Robotiq 2F-85, Ouster, Realsense Cameras, and pan & tilt.

Digitial Twin (RVIZ)

_images/mmp_mip_rviz.webp

Visualizing the MMP in Rviz

To visualize the mmp, you can run:

roslaunch mmp_viz view_robot.launch

Ideally, for latency-free streaming, please utilize ROS multimachine setup.