covmatic-robotmanager 0.0.5

Covmatic Robot Manager is a robotic arm manager for action requested by other robots

RobotManager

Manager code for EVA robot from Automata.

Warning

This is a development program and not ready for production-use. This is part of a project in development.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Installation
• Setup
• Calibration
• Execution

Introduction

The covmatic-robotmanager comes with two scripts callable in a command shell:

• robotmanager-calibrator is a helper program useful to save precise and repeatable calibrations.
• robotmanager-server is the main server that listen for actions to do;

Source code is on ASST Bergamo Est repository

Installation

You can install the Covmatic LocalWebServer via pip:

<python> -m pip install covmatic-robotmanager

Where <python> should be changed for the Python instance you wish to install the Robotmanager onto. We will be following this convention for all the next instructions.

Setup

To set up the Robotmanager application, run

<python> -m covmatic_robotmanager.setup

This will create a desktop link and open in a text editor the file .covmatic/robotmanager.conf in your user home directory. The configuration file should contain at least two parameter:

• eva-ip: this is the IP address of the Automata EVA robot;
• eva-token: this is the token used to authenticate with the EVA robot; create one token in the Profile Eva page. Below an example of robotmanager.conf file:

eva-ip=192.168.1.1
eva-token=abcdefghijklmnrstuvwxyz

Please pay attention to any message regarding if the installed script are inside PATH directory; if you see these messages than you will not be able to start the server and the calibrator using the short commands below, but instead you should locate the script installation directory to launch them.

Calibration

Robotmanager-server uses pre-calibrated positions in order to know where to position the robot.

All the position are stored in a .covmatic/positions.json* file in your home directory.

The data organization has these objects:

• a main HOME position which is the general home where the robot should stay waiting for operations and where it will return after each operation.
• a target robot intended as a machine or entity to reach (e.g. a pipetting robot)
• a slot intended as a part of a target robot to be reached (e.g. SLOT 1 of a pipetting robot)

The calibration flow should be as follows:

1. First of all launch the calibrator in a command line with:

   robotmanager-calibrator
   

2. Then calibrate the general HOME position:

   1. when asked for target insert HOME
   2. move manually the robot by pressing the teach button on the robot head
   3. when ready, press Enter and then s to save the position as home
   4. press q to quit the program.

3. Calibrate the HOME, DECK and HMAX position for each target robot: For proper movement each target robot needs these point calibrated in order:

   1. HOME is the starting position that Eva will go to before entering the target robot. Eva should move freely between HOMEs positions.
   2. DECK is a position where the gripper touches the deck of the target robot. This value is used to calculate heights of labware.
   3. HMAX is the maximum height reachable, calibrated with the Eva arm in the highest possibile position.ù

   To calibrate a position in a target robot you need to follow this sequence for each position:

   1. launch the robotmanager-calibrator script
   2. insert the target robot name (e.g. OT1)
   3. insert the slot name (e.g. HOME, DECK, HMAX, or anything used by protocols as SLOT1, SLOT2 etc.)
   4. follow the instruction of the calibrator (it will ask you to move the robot manually if the position is not found or to load a previously saved position)
   5. make any necessary adjustment with the keyboard (see the screen instructions)
   6. when ready you can test the saved position by pressing w and if necessary make any adjustment
   7. when the position is good press s to save and q to quit

After defining the three basic positions (HOME, DECK, HMAX) for a target robot you can define any other position for a target robot. The Eva will use this data to calculate and execute a safe trajectory to pick up or drop off a plate.

Execution

Covmatic Robotmanager API will listen for request from covmatic-robotstation package running on each target robot. When a pick and drop or a transfer action are queued for a same plate name then the EVA robot will execute the plate transfer.

In case of error (e.g. plate not grabbed) both every action related to that plate will be aborted.