Hello everyone,
We’re happy to announce a new release of stretch_ros today! V0.1 is a minor release adding new backwards compatible features and bugfixes to two of our ROS packages: stretch_core and stretch_demos. If you’re developing with ROS on Stretch, simply perform a git pull on the master branch in ~/catkin_ws/src/stretch_ros.
Here are some of the new features added to stretch_core, the ROS package to interface with the robot’s actuators.
- With the improved Joint Trajectory Action Server, you can command each joint’s position, velocity, and acceleration.
- For the base, lift, and arm joints, you can supply contact effort thresholds, allowing Stretch to perform haptic manipulation (e.g. opening a drawer).
- The server makes use of Stretch’s calibration to verify goals against acceptable joint ranges.
- Feedback messages are sent to your client throughout the duration of the movement.
Stretch_demos is the perfect place to find example code on how to make use of the new stretch_core. As part of the release, two new autonomous demos are available: opening a drawer and writing on a whiteboard. Additionally, the three existing demos have been updated to use the new stretch_core.
We aim to ship clear and readable software packages alongside Stretch for your research. And of course, all of our code is open source. Feel free to engage with us here or on Github with feature requests or by asking for help.
Sincerely,
Binit Shah