HEXFELLOW ROBOT DRIVER

📖 Overview

What is hex_driver_robot

hex_driver_robot is a Python library for controlling HEXFELLOW robots with a unified interface. It supports the Hello Y6 (6‑DOF arm with joystick grip and RGB LED strip), Archer Y6 (6‑DOF arm with optional grip), and Firefly Y6 (6‑DOF arm with optional grip) robot models. The library runs each robot controller in a background thread, streams robot states via deque ring buffers, and exposes consistent readers (get_arm_state, get_grip_state on Archer/Firefly, or get_grip_joy on Hello Y6) plus model‑specific command writers: MIT / joint position / Cartesian pose commands on Archer and Firefly, and grip RGB LED control on Hello Y6. Each model also provides a callback variant (HexRobotArcherY6Callback, HexRobotFireflyY6Callback, HexRobotHelloY6Callback) for event‑driven state handling.

What problem it solves

• Unified robot interface: Use the same API pattern for different robot models (Hello Y6, Archer Y6, Firefly Y6).
• Background control: Each robot controller runs in its own thread; the main thread only reads the latest state when needed.
• Low‑latency sharing: States and commands are passed through deque ring buffers, avoiding serialization overhead.
• Real‑time control: Archer and Firefly support MIT impedance, MIT with compensation, joint position, and Cartesian pose commands; Hello Y6 focuses on motor telemetry, joystick input, and LED control on the grip.
• Callback support: Every model offers a callback class for event‑driven programming alongside the polling‑based class.

Target users

• Robotics researchers prototyping manipulation pipelines with HEXFELLOW robots.
• Developers who need a simple, consistent way to interface with real robot hardware.
• Anyone who wants to switch between different robot models without changing client code.

📦 Installation

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.10
• OS: Linux (macOS/Windows may work but are less tested)
• Core dependencies:
  • hex_util_runtime ≥ 0.0.0, < 0.1.0
  • hex_util_robot ≥ 0.0.0, < 0.1.0
  • hex_util_urdf ≥ 0.0.0, < 0.1.0
  • hex_util_msg ≥ 0.0.0, < 0.1.0
  • hex_device ≥ 1.4.0, < 1.5.0

Install from PyPI

pip install hex_driver_robot

Install from Source

For those who need examples, you can install the package from source code with examples.

Note: We use uv to manage the Python environment. Please install it first.

1. Clone and install in editable mode. The venv.sh script expects uv.

   git clone https://github.com/hexfellow/hex_driver_robot.git
   cd hex_driver_robot
   ./venv.sh
   

   • ./venv.sh — creates .venv, installs hex_driver_robot in editable mode.

2. Activate before running examples:

   source .venv/bin/activate
   

📑 API

See API for details of all robot driver classes and parameters.

💡 Example

See Example for usage aligned with example/archer_y6_example.py, example/firefly_y6_example.py, and example/hello_y6_example.py.

📄 License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.

🌟 Star History

👥 Contributors