AMBF CRTK Plugin

This project is a plugin for Asynchronous Multibody Framework (AMBF) developed by Munawar et al. This plugin will enable users to communicate with AMBF simulation using Collaborative Robotics Toolkit(CRTK).

Please visit here for the CRTK docmuentation.

1. Installation Instructions:

Lets call the absolute location of this package as <plugin_path>. E.g. if you cloned this repo in your home folder, <plugin_path> = ~/ambf_crtk_plugin/ OR /home/<username>/ambf_crtk_plugin.

1.1 clone and build

git clone git@github.com:LCSR-CIIS/ambf_crtk_plugin.git
cd ambf_crtk_plugin
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DBUILD_PLUGIN_WITH_ROS=False
make

A simple package.xml has been included in this repository to enable catkin to find and build it <plugin_path> should be located within catkin_ws/src/.

cd <catkin_ws>
catkin build ambf_crtk_plugin

1.3 Source crtk_msgs

Follow the instruction in crtk_msgs and don't forget to source it.

source catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

2. How to use your plugin

You can test this plugin on the example by: <ambf_exe_dir> ---> e.g. ~/ambf/bin/lin-x86_64

2.1 Simulator plugin

You are required to specify configuration file such as example/CRTK_config.yaml:

cd <ambf_exe_dir>
./ambf_simulator --plugins <plugin_path>/build/libambf_crtk_simulator_plugin.so --conf <plugin_path>/example/CRTK_config.yaml

You can also define plugin in your launch.yaml:

plugins: [
  {
    name: CRTK,
    filename: libambf_crtk_simulator_plugin.so,
    path: <plugin_path>/ambf_crtk_simulator_plugin/build
  }
]

2.2 Model plguin

You can specify plugin in your ADF file as follows:

plugins: [
  {
    name: CRTK,
    filename: libambf_crtk_model_plugin.so,
    path: <plugin_path>/ambf_crtk_model_plugin/build
  }
]
crtk_config: <path_to_your_configuration_file>

2.3 Object plugin

You can specify plugin in your ADF file as follows:

plugins: [
  {
    name: CRTK,
    filename: libambf_crtk_object_plugin.so,
    path: <plugin_path>/ambf_crtk_object_plugin/build
  }
]
crtk_config: <path_to_your_configuration_file>

3. Configuration file

You are required to specify your custom made configuration file to specify what kind of objects you want to monitor/control with which CRTK command.

# Interfaces used for this plugin
interface:
- REMS/Research
- Robot
- Atracsys

# For Interface "REMS/Research"
REMS/Research:
  measured_cp:
    # Additonal namespace
    # rostopic name will be "REMS/Research/delta/measured_cp" 
    namespace: delta        # <- This option is optional

    # Name of Rigidbody in AMBF 
    rigidbody: Endoscope Tip

  measured_js:
    # Name of joints in AMBF
    joints:
    - carriage3_joint
    - carriage1_joint
    - carriage2_joint
    - roll_joint


  measured_cf:
    # Name of Rigidbody in AMBF 
    rigidbody: Endoscope Tip

Robot:
  servo_cp:
    # Name of Rigidbody in AMBF 
    rigidbody: Endoscope Tip
  
  servo_jp:
    # Name of joints in AMBF 
    joints:
    - carriage3_joint
    - carriage1_joint
    - carriage2_joint
    - roll_joint

  servo_cf:
    # Additonal namespace
    # rostopic name will be "Robot/compliance/servo_cf" 
    namespace: compliance # <- This option is optional
    
    # Name of Rigidbody in AMBF 
    rigidbody: Endoscope Tip

Atracsys:
  servo_cp:
    # Name of Rigidbody in AMBF 
    rigidbody: Endoscope Tip

In this example, there will be the following rostopics:

/REMS/Research/delta/measured_cp
/REMS/Research/measured_js
/REMS/Research/measured_cf
/Robot/servo_cp
/Robot/servo_jp
/Robot/compliance/servo_cf
/Atracsys/servo_cp

Example command

Please refer to Surgical Robotics Challenge and use the following command to use it for SRC:

ambf_simulator --launch_file ../surgical_robotics_challenge/launch.yaml -l 0,1,2,3,4,5 --plugins ./build/libambf_crtk_simulator_plugin.so --conf example/SRC_config.yaml 

You can use the following example:

ambf_simulator -a ../3D-Slicer_ROS_Module_with_AMBF/AMBF_Plugin_3DSlicer/ADF/galen.yaml --plugins ./build/libambf_crtk_simulator_plugin.so --conf example/CRTK_config.yaml 

You can use the following example to use model plugin for dvrk:

ambf_simulator --launch_file launch.yaml -l 0,1,2

Trouble Shooting

Please refer to AMBF helper for installation procedure and how to debug the plugins.