Headset-free teleoperation of xArm6 with HTC Vive Controller

This repository contains code for lightweight VR teleoperation of an xArm6 robot using just an HTC Vive Controller. It uses the OpenVR API to access controller data. Joint angles are calculated to match the robot end-effector pose to the controller pose. The joint angles are applied to xArm6 using a wrapper over the official xArm Python SDK.

Setup

1. Basic Steam setup for Vive with Ubuntu: SteamVR

   • Follow https://github.com/ankurhanda/HTC-Vive-Setup-Ubuntu to install SteamVR Beta
   • Do not need to follow entire instructions from here as we are aiming for a headset-free setup
   • No need to install OpenVR from source as per this page. pip install openvr is enough.

2. SteamVR setup for headset-free operation

   • Instructions from https://github.com/username223/SteamVRNoHeadset
   • Make the following changes when setting up for the first time, and every time SteamVR updates.
   • The steam directory on Linux is ~/.local/share/Steam (if that doesn't work, try ~/.steam/steam)
   • Setting updates
     • Null Driver File
       Path: *SteamDirectory*/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/null/resources/settings/default.vrsettings
       Changes:
       a. "enable": false, -> "enable": true,
     • SteamVR Config File
       Path: *SteamDirectory*/steamapps/common/SteamVR/resources/settings/default.vrsettings
       Changes:
       a. "requireHmd": true, -> "requireHmd": false,
       b. "forcedDriver": "", -> "forcedDriver": "null",
       c. "activateMultipleDrivers": false, -> "activateMultipleDrivers": true,

Other relevant setup information:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu7Hwn-5P-k
• https://github.com/cntools/libsurvive

Usage

1. Check SteamVR setup and controller detection:
   • Start SteamVR and test if controller is detected. The controller should be visible in the SteamVR status window:
   • Note that the controller needs to be more than ~1 meter away from the base stations to be detected.
2. Test OpenVR installation and controller tracking:
   • Run python vr_test.py to test if controller data is being received correctly. A live plot of the controller pose and position should show up.
3. Test teleoperation:
   • Note: Please install the xArm Python SDK separately, it is not included in this repo.
   • Run python robot_control.py to start teleoperation. The simulated parameter is set to True by default, so you can verify that the robot is moving correctly in the xArm Studio simulation. If the test is succesful and looks safe, set simulated to False to control the real robot.
4. Teleoperation legend:
   • The trigger on the back of the controller is used to open and close the gripper.
   • The menu button is used to end teleoperation easily.