[Question] How to use ActuatorNet Models for Manipualtor Arms and dextrous hands

[SakethTecholution]

Question

@Mayankm96 @animesh-garg @mpgussert
There is no documentation or demos provided for utilising the actuator net models of real world robot . Does this really improve or effect the training process and results in accurate motion . I have a dextrous hand but its very hard to tune or measure the physical parameters of hand to match simulation . In this case would actuatornet be helpful . If yes can you please guide me thorugh some of exisiting codes or docs to understand .

• A clear documentaiton is lacking in this part, It would be great if a sample demo with better documentation on real world robot control would be helpful

[garylvov]

Some examples of training actuator networks:

https://github.com/Improbable-AI/walk-these-ways/tree/master/scripts/actuator_net
https://github.com/garylvov/scraps/tree/main/actuator_net

as for the process of training the network, I also found https://arxiv.org/pdf/1901.08652 helpful

@Mayankm96 can provide better context on when to use an actuator network - from what I remember it's designed for non-linear motor dynamics and does not provide a benefit on DC motors but I'm not sure

[Dhoeller19]

Hi @SakethTecholution and thanks @garylvov for answering,
Indeed this actuator network is an expert topic that is described in the arxiv paper above. In the future,
we will release more documentation for sim-to-real transfer and we will describe the training process for the actuator networks more.

[SakethTecholution]

@Dhoeller19 @garylvov Thanks for the reply. Just wanted to know will these be useful for manipulator arms . What do you suggest me to use implicit or actuators for system dynamics. I am using doosan cobot(a manipulator arm) with a dextrous hand attached to it .
Your suggestions onto it would be really helpful Thanks in advance..!

[glvov-bdai]

For the doosan cobot, I would recommend using an implicit actuator configuration. As for the hand, it's hard to tell without more information, but I would recommend starting with an implicit actuator configuration, and perhaps switching to a different configuration if you find poor sim to real transfer results

[SakethTecholution]

Thank you for the reply @glvov-bdai