ethercat_force_sensor

This repository contains the instructions for building a custom Force Sensor EtherCAT slave using strain gauges and EasyCAT and use it in ROS2 with EtherCAT Driver ROS2 stack.

Required Hardware

| | | |—|— | Arduino Uno | | Load Cell / Wheatstone Amplifier Shield (2ch) | | | EasyCAT Shield for Arduino | | 5 Kg Micro Load Cell |

EasyCAT configuration

Use the EasyConfigurator tool to load the ForceSensor file and write the configuration to the slave EEPROM.

Open the ForceSensor Arduino project in the Arduino IDE and upload it to the Arduino board.

Usage

Required setup : Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

1. Install ros2 packages. The current development is based of ros2 humble. Installation steps are described here.
2. Source your ros2 environment:

    source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
    

**NOTE**: The ros2 environment needs to be sources in every used terminal. If only one distribution of ros2 is used, it can be added to the `~/.bashrc` file. 3. Install `colcon` and its extensions :

    sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions
     

1. Create a new ros2 workspace:

    mkdir ~/ros2_ws/src
    

1. Pull relevant packages, install dependencies, compile, and source the workspace by using:

    cd ~/ros2_ws
    git clone https://github.com/ICube-Robotics/ethercat_driver_ros2_examples.git src/ethercat_driver_ros2_examples
    vcs import src < ethercat_driver_ros2_examples.repos
    rosdep install --ignore-src --from-paths . -y -r
    colcon build --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release --symlink-install --packages-select ethercat_force_sensor
    source install/setup.bash
    

1. Run the system:

    ros2 launch ethercat_force_sensor force_sensor.launch.py
    

Contacts

ICube Laboratory, University of Strasbourg, France

Maciej Bednarczyk: m.bednarczyk@unistra.fr, @github: mcbed