Only released in EOL distros:   groovy hydro

Overview

This metapackage contains low level drivers and ROS nodes for the BioTac from UPenn's biotac_stack contained in the Penn-haptics-bolt repository.

The following instructions are from the README.md file in the Penn-haptics-bolt respository. For more details also look at the UPenn Haptics group's wiki page.

SynTouch software

SynTouch also offers software for the Biotacs including low level libraries and GUIs:

Syntouch software website

Installation

Cheetah USB dev rules

In order to be able to read the Biotac data via the Cheetah SPI-USB board you first have to copy the udev rules

1. Download the Cheetah SPI board drivers tp-usb-drivers-v2.10.zip from http://www.totalphase.com/products/cheetah_spi/

2. Unzip the folder

    unzip tp-usb-drivers-v2.10.zip

3. Copy the udev rules

    sudo cp tp-usb-drivers-v2.10/linux/99-totalphase.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

ROS package installation

After copying the Cheetah udev rules you can download and compile the ROS package. Also make sure you have a working catkin workspace (look at the ROS tutorials).

Download the package to the catkin workspace:

    cd ~/catkin_ws/src/
    git clone -b <ros_distro> https://github.com/kth-ros-pkg/biotac_driver.git

Where <ros-distro> can be the **groovy** or **hydro** branch.

Otherwise you can use ROS's **wstool**:

    cd ~/catkin_ws/src/
    wstool init
    wstool set biotac_driver --git https://github.com/kth-ros-pkg/biotac_driver.git -v <ros_distro>
    wstool update biotac_driver

Then compile the workspace:

    cd ~/catkin_ws && catkin_make

Electrical connections

(Try for this order, but it doesn't really matter) 1. Plug the biotac sensors into the Multi-BioTac board

2. Plug the +5V nano-USB cable into the MBTB and your computer's USB

3. Plug the Cheetah's 10 pin ribbon cable into the MBTB

4. Plug the Cheetah's USB into your computer's USB port

Running ROS nodes

1. To start reading the sensors

    rosrun biotac_sensors biotac_pub

2. Check to make sure your sensors are working:

    rostopic echo biotac_pub

3. Then to log some data in JSON form:

    rosrun biotac_logger biotac_json_logger.py _filename:=trial_001.json

Bug Reports & Feature Requests

We appreciate the time and effort spent submitting bug reports and feature requests.

Please submit your tickets through github (requires github account) or by emailing the maintainers.