da Vinci Research Kit ROS

This repository has code related to daVinci Research Kit (dVRK) ROS packages. See https://github.com/jhu-dvrk/sawIntuitiveResearchKit/wiki

Install

We use the catkin build tools, NOT catkin_make. See download and compilation instructions: https://github.com/jhu-dvrk/sawIntuitiveResearchKit/wiki/CatkinBuild

List of Packages:

• dvrk_robot [maintained]
  • Main file to start dVRK (dvrk_console_json), publish & subscribe ros topics
  • Launch files to start RViz with geometric simulation
• dvrk_model [mostly maintained]
  • CAD models & meshes
  • RViz configs
  • Launch files
• dvrk_python [maintained]
  • Python classes using ROS topics
  • Simple API to control any dVRK arm as well as console and teleoperation components
• dvrk_matlab [maintained, missing some features]
  • Matlab classes using ROS topics
  • Requires Robotics Toolkit (2015a and above), any OS (Windows, Mac, Linux)
  • Simple API to control any dVRK arm
  • No support for console (yet)
• dvrk_hrsv_widget [maintained]
  • Qt based application that launches two simple widgets to be displayed in stereo console
  • Provides simple text based feedback to operator to understand current state of dVRK components
• dvrk_arms_from_ros [maintained]
  • cisst/SAW plugin for the dVRK C++ stack to use any arm with a dVRK compatible set of ROS topics
  • This plugin allows to use ROS as middleware between two dVRK sets of arms on different PCs (distant tele-operation)