tactile_toolbox - Handling tactile sensors in ROS

This software package adds tactile messages, a tactile sensor description to URDF, as well as visualization tools to ROS. It comprises the following ROS packages:

• tactile_msgs: ROS messages to describe raw tactile data as well as high-level contact information.
• tactile_state_publisher
  • tactile_state_publisher: Re-publish TactileState msgs, allowing to merge different sources into a new topic.
  • tactile_bias: Re-publish TactileState msgs allowing to reset tactile bias on demand (tare)
• tactile_calibration
  • tactile_state_calibrator: maps raw tactile values to calibrated ones
• urdf_tactile: URDF parser to read tactile <sensor> tags
• tactile_merger: Map tactile_msgs/TactileState onto tactile_msgs/TactileContacts, i.e. contact position, force, and normal, merging contact data of all taxels per link into a single wrench vector
• tactile_pcl: Compute and publish Tactile Point Cloud data from tactile_msgs/TactileContacts.
• rviz_tactile_plugins: rviz visualization tools for raw tactile data and contact information.

Install Instructions

Pre-Requirements

• Ubuntu Bionic with ROS Melodic:

  sudo apt install python-wstool python-rosdep python-catkin-tools
• or Ubuntu Focal with ROS Noetic:

  sudo apt install python3-wstool python3-rosdep python3-catkin-tools

Setup and build catkin workspace

export CATKIN_WS=~/catkin_ws  # Change to your preferred location
export ROS_DISTRO=melodic     # Change to your ROS distro

mkdir -p $CATKIN_WS/src
cd $CATKIN_WS
catkin config --extend /opt/ros/${ROS_DISTRO}

# Fetch sources from rosinstall file
cd src
wstool init
wstool merge https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ubi-agni/tactile_toolbox/melodic-devel/rosinstall
wstool update

# Install dependencies
rosdep install -y --from-paths . --ignore-src --rosdistro ${ROS_DISTRO}

# Build the workspace
catkin build

# Source the workspace
source $CATKIN_WS/devel/setup.bash