Kuka Setup

Hardware setup

BEFORE DOING ANYTHING make sure that the robot is at a safe distance from people, walls & surroundings !

1. Power on the control box (the KUKA cabinet).
2. Enter the machine password (see on the NYU wiki)

Moving joints manually

1. Turn the key of of the teach pendant and wait for all lights to be green.
2. Select T1 mode from the control panel (25 % maximum velocity limit & deadman / start program switch must be pressed)
3. Press grey button to half and move joints

If warnings or error appear, refer to troubleshooting section.

Software setup (torque control using FRI)

1. After installing Ubuntu run the installation script. NOTE : run the following commands to ensure installation of these packages.

pip3 install breathe
sudo apt install libcereal-dev libedit-dev doxygen

2. create a directory devel and clone the treep_machines_in_motion package
3. treep --clone DG_KUKA (clones kuka, kuka drivers, dynamic_graph_manager, dynamic_graph_manager dependencies, dynamic graph head, robot_properties_kuka)
4. Turn off ROS in the CMake file in Dynamic graph Manager
5. build the workspace in release mode colcon build --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DPYBIND11_TEST=OFF -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF

One Time Setups for Kuka communication

1. Ensure that the Ethernet port from the Kuka box is connected to your PC
2. Add yourself to the realtime user group
3. Run sudo chown {username} /dev/cpu_dma_latency. Refer to the NYU MIM wiki for more info
4. Configure the Ethernet port following the instructions on the NYU MIM Wiki

Running the KUKA

1. Open one terminal and source ros, laas packages and your workspace
2. run ros2 run dg_kuka dgm_iiwa_main
3. Open another terminal. Source ros, laas and your workspace
4. run python3 your_demo_file.py