Code for controlling a Kinova Gen3 Manipulator via Drake.

Simulation	Hardware

• OpenCV
• Drake
• Open3d point cloud library
• matplotlib
• numpy
• python3
• scipy

Hardware only:

• GStreamer (for accessing camera streams)
• OpenCV with GStreamer bindings
• Kinova Kortex API

The goal of this repository is to provide a unified high-level interface with the Kinova Gen3 robot arm that is as consistent as possible between real life and simulation. This is inspired by the "manipulation station" provided with Drake, which uses a Kuka iiwa.

Specifically, we provide a Drake system diagram as follows:

where the same input and output ports are provided in simulation and on the hardware.

There are basic examples of various things (both simulation and hardware) in the examples directory. These must be run from this directory with, e.g., python3 -m examples.peg_pickup_demo.

The simplest examples can be run with

python3 -m examples.simulation_demo

(in simulation) and

python3 -m examples.hardware_demo

(on the hardware).

These examples demonstrate how to send end-effector position, velocity, or wrench references. Various parameters can be set such as gripper type, reference type, whether to make system diagram plots, etc.

The peg pickup examples found in examples/peg_pickup_demo.py (simulation) and examples/peg_pickup_demo_hw.py (hardware) show how to use a CommandSequence object to design and track a series of setpoints.

Specifically, these setpoints are designed so that the robot reaches and picks up a peg in a known location.

Examples of using the robot's depth camera to pick up an object at an a-priori unknown location can be found in examples/point_cloud_demo.py (simulation) and examples/point_cloud_demo_hw.py (hardware).

We use a simple geometric heuristic (described here) to select a grasp location.