Software highlights from the first PR2 Beta Program Conference Call

The Willow Garage PR2 robots have been out at the PR2 Beta Sites for only a few short months and they have been busy with research projects, developing new software libraries for ROS, and creating Youtube hits. The first PR2 Beta Program Conference call was recently held to highlight this work, and the list of software that they have released as open source is already impressive.

A partial list of this software below so that all the ROS users and researchers can try it out and be involved. You'll find many more libraries in their public code repositories, and there is much more coming soon.

Georgia Tech

• hrl_rfid: Open hardware and software for servoing to RFID tags
• laser_pointer_interface: look at and drive to locations that a user points to with a laser pointer
• Teloperation for dual manipulation using a Phantom Omni and stereo anaglyph display: pr2_omni_teleop, phantom_omni, stereo_anaglyph

KU Leuven

• Orocos RTT 2.0 has been released
• orocos_rtt_ros_toolchain: Automatic Orocos RTT 2.0 typekit and transport creation from ROS .msg files
• Multi-target tracking and detection
• PR2 model for Blender: pr2_blender_model. Working on adding simulation capabilities.

JSK

• EusLisp: now available under a BSD license
• ROS/PR2 integration with EusLisp: roseus, pr2eus, and euscollada
• jsk_ros_tools: includes rostool-alias-generator (e.g. rostopic_robot1) and jsk-rosemacs (support for anything.el)

TUM

• knowrob: tools for knowledge acquisition, representation and reasoning
• CRAM: reasoning and high level control for Steel Bank Common Lisp (cram_pl) and executive that reasons about locations (cram_highlevel)
• prolog_perception: logically interact with perception nodes
• pcl: contributions include pointcloud_registration, pcl_cloud_algos, pcl_cloud_tools, pcl_ias_sample_consensus, pcl_to_octree, mls

Stanford

• Checkout Bot: pickup common drug store objects on table, scan their barcode, and toss into bag
• Find and execute stable grasps for the PR2 gripper: grasping, grasping_executive, grasping_classifier

Berkeley

• towel_folding: version of Towel Folding from pre-PR2 Beta Program that relies on two Canon G10 cameras mounted on chest. Uses optical flow for corner detection.
• LDA-SIFT: recognition for transparent objects
• Utilities:
  • pr2_simple_motions: Classes for easy scripting in Python of PR2 head, arms, grippers, torso, and base
  • visual_feedback: Streamlined image processing for 3d point extraction and capturing images
  • stereo_click: Click a point in any stereo camera feed and the corresponding 3d point is published
  • shape_window: Provides a highgui-based interface for drawing and manipulating 2D shapes.

MIT

• iSAM: Incremental Smooth and Mapping released as LGPL.

USC

• OIT: Overhead interaction toolkit for tracking robots and people using an overhead camera.
• deixis: Deictic gestures, such as pointing

Freiburg

• articulation: (stable) Fit and select appropriate models for observed motion trajectories of articulated objects.
• Contributions to pcl, including range image class and border extraction method

Bosch

• wviz: Web visualization toolkit to support their PR2 Remote Lab. Bosch has already been able to use their Remote Lab to collaborate with Brown University, and Brown University has released a rosjs to access ROS via a web browser.

Penn

• teleop_ar_toolkit: Control PR2 arms and head using fiducials
• minipr2: code for running mini-PR2 constructed out of CKBot modules
• sbpl_arm_planner: search-based motion planning algorithm for robotic manipulators (updated version coming soon).
• pr2_haptic_event_detector: detect contact events using PR2 fingertip pressure sensors