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QB Robotics N.1 qb SoftHand Research 24 V General Manual

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General Manual
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USE. DO NOT DISCARD: KEEP FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.
 

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Summary of Contents for QB Robotics N.1 qb SoftHand Research 24 V

  • Page 1 General Manual PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USE. DO NOT DISCARD: KEEP FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.  ...
  • Page 2 Dear customer, Thank you for purchasing our product.           The present document provides information at best of our knowledge at the time of publication. This document could present differences from the product and it is subject to changes without notice: the latest version is available on our webpage www.qbrobotics.com.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents 1 Preface .......................... 1 Using this document Symbols and conventions Kit content 2 Safety..........................4 Intended use Safety instructions EC Directives on product safety Environmental conditions Environmental safety 3 Technical data ......................7 Mechanical dimensions Center of Mass Mechanical characteristics Electrical characteristics Tool connector pinout...
  • Page 4 The hand does not reopen correctly The USB flash drive is not working...

  • Page 5: Preface

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  5   1 Preface 1.1 Using this document The documentation must always be complete and in a perfectly readable state. Keep the document accessible to the operating and, if necessary, maintenance personnel at all times. Pass the document to any subsequent owner or user of the product. 1.2 Symbols and conventions STYLE DESCRIPTION...

  • Page 6: Kit Content

    Identifies file paths, file names and software functions. Monospaced text 1.3 Kit content The kit consists of: • N.1 qb SoftHand Research 24 V; • N.1 ISO 9409-1-50-4-M6 flange adapter; • N.1 0.3m direct wrist connection cable for UR e-Series robots; •...
  • Page 7 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  3   • Manual; • Datasheet; • N.1 cylindrical pin EN ISO 8734 A d6x14 h6; • N.4 metrical screws EN ISO 4762 M6x10; • N.8 metrical screws EN ISO 10642 M3x8; • N.1 2 mm Allen hex key; •...

  • Page 8: Safety

    4  —  SAFETY 2 Safety 2.1 Intended use The product design is intended for grasping objects in the weight range from 1 to 1700 g. Fragile, sharp or sharp-edged objects shall not be grasped. Objects having the ratio between the biggest and the smallest dimensions ≥8 and the main dimension greater than 300 mm shall not be grasped.

  • Page 9: Ec Directives On Product Safety

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  5   2.3 EC Directives on product safety • The following EC directives on product safety must be observed. • If the product is being used outside the UE, international, national and regional directives must be also observed.
  • Page 10 6  —  SAFETY All the components of this product have been chosen in accordance with the EU RoHS directive 2011/65/ EU: they are produced with restricted use of hazardous substances to protect the environment. Observe national registration requirements for importers according to EU WEEE Directive 2012/19/EU.  ...

  • Page 11: Technical Data

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  7   3 Technical data 3.1 Mechanical dimensions The figure below shows the overall dimensions of the qb SoftHand research, valid for both left and right configurations; distances and tolerances in the drawing are noted in millimeters  [mm]  degrees  [°] Figure 1.

  • Page 12: Center Of Mass

    8  —  TECHNICAL DATA 3.2 Center of Mass The following table gives also the position of the Center of Mass of the SoftHand and defines its Coordinate System, like depicted in the following schemes. UNIT LEFT RIGHT CoM x coordinate, O [mm] CoM y coordinate, O [mm]...

  • Page 13: Mechanical Characteristics

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  9   On the right, there is the Tool Coordinate System, Σ  (O ), of the SoftHand. The center, O coincides with the center of mass of the hand and its position is defined by the distance from O . The Z  axis is normal to the palm, outgoing positive, and the Y  axis follows the proximal-distal direction and orientation.

  • Page 14: Electrical Characteristics

    10  —  TECHNICAL DATA Figure 4. — Maximum payload chart Figure 5. — Chart notes   3.4 Electrical characteristics MINIMUM NOMINAL MAXIMUM Power supply voltage [VDC] 23.1 24.8 Power consumption Current limit — 0.75 Operational time — — GENERAL MANUAL  —  SEP 8, 2022 — RELEASE: V1.1.0...

  • Page 15: Tool Connector Pinout

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  11   MINIMUM NOMINAL MAXIMUM Duty cycle — — Operating temperature [°C] Relative humidity ** — Typical noise level [dB] — <50 — * Starting spike current may be greater, but it is instantaneous. ** Only the non-condensing case is to be considered. 3.5 Tool connector pinout On the qb SoftHand flange there is a Phoenix Contact 8-position M8 connector, A-coded, with gold-plated copper alloy contacts —...
  • Page 16 12  —  TECHNICAL DATA WIRE COLOR DESCRIPTION White RS485+ Brown RS485- Green — Yellow — Gray 24V *** Pink GND *** Blue 24V *** GND *** Figure 6. — User view   *** 24VDC and GND must be provided by an isolated Power Supply Unit. ...

  • Page 17: Description

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  13   4 Description 4.1 General qb SoftHand Research is an anthropomorphic robotic hand based on soft-robotics technology. It is flexible, adaptable and able to interact with the surrounding environment, objects, or even humans while limiting the risk of injuring operators, spoiling products, or damaging the robot itself. Thanks to its soft nature the SoftHand by qbrobotics exploits the principles of synergies in an intrinsically intelligent design that is not only safe w.r.t.

  • Page 18: Standard Customization

    14  —  DESCRIPTION • Dislocatable and self-reposition phalanges; • Up to 60 N grasping force*; • Up to 2.0 kg maximum payload*; • Maximum closure time of 1.1 s; • Total weight of 770 g (including aluminium flange and screws); • Universal Robots + plug-and-play certified;...

  • Page 19: Mounting And Wiring

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  15   5 Mounting and wiring 5.1 Tool mounting The qb SoftHand research kit allows you to connect the device to the robot arm. The device can be mounted on any robot equipped with a mounting interface ISO 9409-1. Use only the screws provided within the package.
  • Page 20 16  —  MOUNTING AND WIRING   INSTRUCTIONS Center (2) on the wrist diameter 63 mm, taking care that the cylindrical pin (1) fits into one of the four d6 reamed through holes.   Fasten (2) to the robot wrist by tightening the four screws (3).

  • Page 21: Cable Connections

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  17     INSTRUCTIONS Fix axially the hand by tightening the 8 screws (5). You need the 2 mm Allen wrench.   5.2 Cable connections To power and connect the qb SoftHand to UR robots' control box or a workstation computer, please follow the instructions in the table, using the provided kit.
  • Page 22 18  —  MOUNTING AND WIRING Figure 7. — Connection kit for qbSoftHand Research: power supply unit (A), RS485-USB converter (B), main cable (C1), USB cable (C2), power cable (C3).   INSTRUCTIONS Connect the main cable (C1) at the RS485-USB converter (B). GENERAL MANUAL ...
  • Page 23 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  19     INSTRUCTIONS Connect the main cable (C1) to a power supply unit (A) (Not connected to the power). If you have not required the external  power supply, the C1 cable has two unconnected red and grey ends. These are used to power the device, so connect the red wire to the negative (V )  and the...
  • Page 24 20  —  MOUNTING AND WIRING   INSTRUCTIONS Insert the M8 connector of (9) into the receptacle on the hand wrist flange. Lock the M8 connector by manually tightening its threaded ring on the body of the receptacle (max tightening torque= 0.2 Nm). Be careful to insert the connector in the ...

  • Page 25: Software

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  21   6 Software 6.1 Configuration GUI 6.1.1 Installation You can download our GUI from our website (download area). To install all the requirements for your specific operating system, please refer to the how-to section  (see Page 42)  ...
  • Page 26 22  —  SOFTWARE Two devices connected to the same master must never have the same ID value.  Unexpected behaviors may happen otherwise. The button of the tab allow: • : Info about the current GUI. About • : upgrade the qbSoftHand firmware. Contact the support team for information about the Upgrade...
  • Page 27 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  23   Figure 8. — Overall view of the qbtools GUI   6.1.3 Basic tab The motors must be activated first to be able to send references to the them.  the two buttons   and  enable Measurements and Currents: “Get Measurements”...

  • Page 28: Ros

    24  —  SOFTWARE 6.2 ROS  WARNING: This is basically a mirror of the qb SoftHand ROS wiki  and it is supplied only for README offline documentation. Please, refer to the online wiki whenever you can; it is our main and most updated reference for qb SoftHand ROS related application.
  • Page 29 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  25    WARNING: This ROS package does not work without qb_device one. Please ensure to run: sudo apt install ros-<ros_distro>-qb-device before installing qbSoftHand ros packages. These packages may not always be updated, as they are only synchronised at certain intervals. To keep up-to-date with our public releases, install the packages with the source code, as described in the section following section (Sources).
  • Page 30 26  —  SOFTWARE  NOTE: Depending on your ROS installation, you may need some extra packages to properly compile the code. Please, be sure that you have already installed at least ros-<ros_distro>-ros- controllers ros-<ros_distro>-transmission-interface ros-<ros_distro>- their joint-limits-interface ros-<ros_distro>-combined-robot-hw dependencies (e.g. use sudo apt install <ros-pkg>...
  • Page 31 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  27   Figure 9. — qb SoftHand ROS control mode schemes In both cases there is always one central Node which manages the shared resources for the serial communication (e.g. one or many USB ports) and which provides several ROS services to whom wants to interact with the connected devices.
  • Page 32 28  —  SOFTWARE Figure 10. — qb SoftHand ROS packages and classes overview   Communication Handler The Communication Handler Node has no parameters to be set, therefore it is always launched like this: roslaunch qb_device_driver communication_handler.launch On start, it scans the serial communication resources connected to your system and shows a list of the devices it has found.
  • Page 33 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  29   Control As shown before, the control Node exploits the ros_control Controller Manager which loads and runs the device controllers. Each controller provides an Action Server that, together with the Hardware Interface structure, allows the user to send commands to the relative device and get its measurements. From an API point of view, it is implemented an Action Client which matches the relative trajectory controller and provides a method to send Goals, i.e.
  • Page 34 30  —  SOFTWARE All the control modes are initialized in the same manner but with distinct command line arguments. The default single-device control Node which brings everything up and simply waits for commands on the above-mentioned Action topic is the following: roslaunch qb_hand_control control.launch standalone:=true activate_on_initialization:=true device_id:=<actual_device_id>...
  • Page 35 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  31    NOTE: Be aware that the qb SoftHand is desensorized and therefore it is not possible to know exactly the position of each finger: the screen visualization is just the result of an estimation of the closure value and may differ from the real configuration of your qb SoftHand (e.g.
  • Page 36 32  —  SOFTWARE  NOTE: You will probably need this only the very first times and for debugging. To start this mode just add to the general command (be sure use_controller_gui:=true roslaunch that the opposite is not used). use_waypoints After a while a GUI should appear to screen with two empty drop-down menus, a red enable button below them, and a speed scaling slider at the bottom.
  • Page 37 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  33   2. Waypoint Control This control mode is a bit more structured and useful than the previous: it allows to set a fixed trajectory of any number of position waypoints (with timing constraints) and set the robot to cycle infinitely on it (because of the loop it is recommended to set the first and last waypoint in a similar configuration to avoid unwanted sudden changes).
  • Page 38 34  —  SOFTWARE <device_name>: [0.5] joint_velocities: <device_name>: [-0.5] 3. API Control If you need a complex (i.e. real) control application, e.g. the qb SoftHand is mounted on a robot which uses computer vision aid to grasp objects, the previous two control modes don't really help much. What we provide for real applications is the full ROS libraries to manage and control the qb SoftHand.

  • Page 39: C++ Api Library

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  35   You are definitely an expert user, you have found a bug in our code and you have also correct it: it will be amazing if you open a Pull Request in the package of interest on our Bitbucket ;...
  • Page 40 36  —  SOFTWARE CMake project setup In order to set up a CMake project, using the compiled files, that implements your own application, we suggest to create a new project that has a structure similar to the following: ├── include │ ├── qbrobotics_research_api │...
  • Page 41 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  37   6.3.2 qbdevice C++ API v6 Installation To install all the requirements for your specific operating system, please refer to the how-to section  (see Page 42)  To compile the C/C++ API library: • open a terminal (for Linux and macOS users), or the command prompt (for Windows users); •...
  • Page 42 38  —  SOFTWARE • int commGetCurrents(comm_settings *file_descriptor, int device_id, short int : fills   with the current of the motor on the qb SoftHand with the given currents[2]) "currents" id, and returns 0 on success; only the first value is meaningful and it is expressed in milliamperes. •...
  • Page 43 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  39   (result != 0 || status != TRUE) { std::cout << "ERROR: fails while activating motor" << std::endl; return // ... short int currents[2]; // only the first value is meaningful short int positions[3]; // only the first value is meaningful (commGetMeasurements(&file_descriptor, device_id, positions) <...
  • Page 44 40  —  SOFTWARE closeRS485(&file_descriptor); return GENERAL MANUAL  —  SEP 8, 2022 — RELEASE: V1.1.0...

  • Page 45: Maintenance And Warranty

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  41   7 Maintenance and warranty 7.1 General Products of the company qbrobotics s.r.l. are produced using the most modern production methods and are subject of strict quality inspections. All information regarding our Warranty Policy can be found at this site.

  • Page 46: Faq And Troubleshooting

    42  —  FAQ AND TROUBLESHOOTING 8 FAQ and troubleshooting For any issue not listed below, please contact our support team 8.1 Grasping with a custom finger position 8.1.1 Problem The qb SoftHand adapts the finger position to envelop the object shape as much as possible — i.e. automagically.
  • Page 47 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  43    NOTE: Note: different Linux distributions should also work fine, but they are not officially supported. Microsoft Windows As far as July 2020, Windows 10 version 1809+ and Windows 10 Enterprise 2015+ are supported and recommended. 8.2.2 Drivers installation If you are using either Microsoft Windows or Apple macOS it is necessary to download and install the communication drivers from...
  • Page 48 44  —  FAQ AND TROUBLESHOOTING  WARNING: Be aware that we support only serial port names between  `COM1` `COM9` Each time you connect a new device to your PC (or even a device to a new PC), you should check whether it has been set in the proper port range or not. To change the serial port number: go under "Control Panel >...

  • Page 49: Simplified Cad Models Of The Qb Softhand

    QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  45   Download the make utility from here . Follow the installation instruction. In the end you will need to add the binary path to the Environment Variables. To do that follow the previous steps. (Usually the binary folder for the make utility is in C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin ...
  • Page 50 46  —  FAQ AND TROUBLESHOOTING  WARNING: Be aware that you must never grasp sharp objects, nor have them close to the robot during its operation, cf. safety warnings  (see Page 4)  A damaged glove can affect repeatability and grasping performance. 8.4.2 Solution Unfortunately is not possible to ship you a whole new glove and let you proceed with its replacement.
  • Page 51 QBSOFTHAND RESEARCH USER MANUAL  —  47   The thumb phalanges are not properly placed: indeed it can happen that they don't always go back to the original position (this highly depends on how fingers envelop the object and how much each phalanx dislocate from its original place).

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