Launching gui_based_control vs. launch_ctrk_interface? Or are these not mutually exclusive?

[sunshineinsandiego]

Hi - Following the instructions here to try to launch GUI control of the PSM arms / ECM, but not understanding how exactly to do this.

(1) It is written:

"Simply run the launch_crtk_interface.py script. This script will consequently use the psm_arm.py, ecm_arm.py and scene.py scripts and create ROS topics to publish and receive commands."

-- My belief is that I should run $ python3 launch_crtk_interface.py in a 3rd terminal with my other two terminals running $ roscore and $ ./ambf_simulator --launch_file <surgical_robotics_challenge>/launch.yaml -l 0,1,3,4,14,15 -p 120 -t 1 --override_max_comm_freq 120.

(2) Then I should run $ gui_based_control.py in a 4th terminal to access the GUIs that will interface with the ROS topics launched by the launch_crtk_interface.py script?

OR

(3) Are these two separate concepts? The launch_crtk_interface.py should be used with ROS messages while the gui_based_control.py already includes the interface with the simulated PSMs/ECM? In which case gui_based_control.py should be run with the other two processes being roscore and ./ambf_simulator?

Thanks!

[adnanmunawar]

Hello,

Thanks for the detailed question. Let me clarify.

1. The objects (PSMs and ECM) in the surgical robotics challenge (SRC) assets can be controlled using two interfaces: 1) Method based API and 2) ROS Topics based API. The ROS Topics based API is implemented by the launch_crtk_interface.py script which internally uses the methods based API but to the user it provides ROS topics which relays the state of the PSMs, ECM and the scene, and complementary topics that allow sending commands to the PSMs, ECM and the Scene (i.e. Needle etc).
2. The gui_based_control.py script uses the Method based API and thus does not need the launch_crtk_interface.py script to be running. This is what your point 3 implies and that is correct. You should note that the gui_based_control.py is only an example script which allows controlling the PSMs and ECM using GUI sliders. This is not intuitive enough to allow one to complete the suturing.
3. You can look at the two examples here namely interface_via_method_api.py and interface_via_crtk_ros_api.py to see how Method Based API and ROS Topics based API interfaces are used. NOTE: For both the examples, you will need roscore and the ./ambf_simulator --launch_file <surgical_robotics_challenge>/launch.yaml -l 0,1,3,4,14,15 -p 120 -t 1 --override_max_comm_freq 120 processes to be running. Also, for running interface_via_crtk_ros_api.py, you will also need to run the launch_crtk_interface.py beforehand.

[sunshineinsandiego]

Sorry for the delayed response! Thanks, this was super helpful. I think I understand this now.