---
title: 9/6/21
tags: meeting-notes
---
# Monday, 9/6/21

### General Action Items
- All
- [ ] Join [roster](https://forms.gle/R7KCbzdk6aZdJbEP9)
- [ ] Fill out [availibility](http://whenisgood.net/zexsi94)
- [ ] Join #robot-arm role in Discord to get announcement notifs
- Software
- [ ] Read the [Software Docs](https://wiki.purduearc.com/wiki/robot-arm/software) on the wiki
- [ ] Follow all the steps in the [GitHub README](https://github.com/purdue-arc/arc_robot_arm) to see if you can run the codebase we have now
- [ ] Get familiar with ROS + codebase if you haven't already with the [ARC ROS Snake Game tutorial](https://wiki.purduearc.com/wiki/tutorials/snake-tutorial)

- Hardware
- [ ] Read the [Hardware Docs](https://wiki.purduearc.com/wiki/robot-arm/hardware) on the wiki to know what you can get involved in
- [ ] @Sara, complete resources section in the hardware docs?

### Discussion
- [ ] Get to know the team and what they're interested in (If you're not on here, add yourself to this list please)
- Software
- Planning/Control (Visual servoing)
- Vikram, Gary, Revanth, Domininc
- High-level planning:
- Jon
- Vision
- Arnav, Vikram?, Ahmad
- Low-level Control
- Kinda done already, so not much interesting work here
- Interested in all
- Raghava, Ashvin?, Jon?
- Hardware
- Open-source arm:
- Revanth, Dio (helping with 3D printing)
- Arm from scratch:
- Sara
- Bronson
- Dynamic duo:
- Casey, Sara Lynn
- Most interested in getting good at CAD, but can help out in both areas
- [ ] How do we approach problems in robotics as non-experts?
- [Fail fast → learn fast](https://www.raghavauppuluri.dev/learning-quickly/)
- [ ] Discuss some subareas more in-depth
- **It's ok if you don't understand this stuff. Google some terms you don't know, you'd be suprised how much you'd learn from just doing that**
- Grasping
- Visual Servoing (VS)
- Planning on using **image-based VS** as it requires the least assumtions currently
- Goal is to atleast pick up one piece autonomously
- Limited by simulation (fastest/least resource-intensive development)
- Realsense depth-measurements at close range aren't that accurate in sim, making depth-based VS harder to test + develop (is it worth spending a lot of time fixing if image-based can work?)
- Grasping and close contact physics isn't that great (not implemented either)
- [ ] try to use image-based/depth-based VS and [move_to](https://github.com/purdue-arc/arc_robot_arm/blob/main/protoarm_visual_servoing/src/vs_node) ROS Node to move the arm in simulation close to the chess piece **(TODO: @raghava @gary)**
- Depth data from real Realsense is not that accurate in simulation possibly due to short range
- Fixed by changing the preset on real camera? ([link](https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense/wiki/D400-Series-Visual-Presets#preset-table))
- Tentative plan for grasping (image based VS + more hardcoding + maybe more reliable?)
1. Center camera on target chess piece (bounding boxes are from chess_piece_detector or color detection in sim). Reduces the kinematics problem to movement along a line?
2. Define states for the gripper as parameters ([more info](http://moveit2_tutorials.picknik.ai/doc/moveit_grasps/moveit_grasps_tutorial.html) on what the parameters are)
3. Utilize some keypoint detection algorithm to determine the current/goal state of the keypoints in **pixel space** and a controller that can determine the error between the current/goal states, and stopping when the goal state is reached
4. Execute hard-coded pick movement, then retreat to a post-pick state
5. Repeat above steps with the place location of the chess piece

### Future Discussion

#### General
- How is the wiki? Too complex? Not enough info? Too vague?
- BIDC access
- Getting update on the 10th

#### Software
- Potential plan for grasping with more autonomy
- Chessboard detection - Current best approach?
- Chess Piece Detection - Is the current model good enough?
- ROS workshop?
- Getting access to real robot arm + chess set to play with (in BIDC)

#### Hardware
- Finalize list of things to buy for open-source arm
- Moveo arm is finalized? Any alternatives? @Revanth
- Status update from Sara on from scratch arm?
- What should hardware people be doing?
- When are CAD workshops?