Working with CASPR

CARDSflow supports visualization of robots in CASPR (The Cable-robot Analysis and Simulation Platform for Research), an open-source software platform developed in MATLAB for the analysis of arbitrary cable-robot models.

You need to install custom message support for matlab MATLABROS

Setting up CASPR

  1. Follow the installation guide in CASPR

  2. After having CASPR installed in MATLAB, note the IPs of your platforms running CARDSflow and CASPR

  3. Set up the CARDSflow interface in CASPR by: (replace <cardsflow_ip>, <caspr_ip> with the corresponding IPs)

    CARDSFlow_configuration.SetROSConfig('<cardsflow_ip>', '<caspr_ip>');

  4. Build custom ROS messages in roboy_communication for MATLAB by following instructions here

Simple Visualization

Launching CARDSflow

  1. Launch a simple visualizer in CARDSflow by:

    roslaunch cardsflow_rviz simple_visualization.launch

  2. Add the CARDSflow panel in RViz

  3. At the Displays Sidebar set Globals Options > Fixed Frame to “world”

  4. At the Displays Sidebar add the display types “rviz > Marker” and “rviz > TF”

  5. File > Save Config

CASPR Simulations

  1. Launch the GUI in CASPR by:

    CASPR_GUI

  2. Select Example 2R planar XZ from the Model pull down menu

  3. Press the To Rviz button on the GUI and verify that the robot is visualized in RViz

../_images/caspr_gui_planar.PNG

  1. Press the Kinematics button in Simulators

  2. Run an inverse kinematics simulation by pressing the Run button

../_images/caspr_kin_planar.PNG

  1. Press the RViz button to visualize the trajectory

../_images/caspr_planar2r.png