Sawyer Research Robot | Maryland Robotics Center

Sawyer

Status: Active with limitations, contact the lab manager

Superusers

Ivan Penskiy (ipenskiy@umd.edu)

Overview

Sawyer from Rethink Robotics is a robot designed for research in human-safe robotic manufacturing and human-assistive robotics. It has one 7-axis arm, integrated cameras, torque sensors, and direct programming access via a standard ROS (Robot Operating System) interface.

Location

Brendan Iribe Center (Bldg. 432), room 0116.

Physical specifications

Maximum reach	1260 mm
Gantry reach	900 mm
Task repeatability	±0.1 mm
Degrees of freedom	7
Maximum payload (including end effector)	4 kg

Important documents and useful links

Reservation

Sawyer must be reserved before using. The reservation is done using the Google calendar (IRB-0116sa). Users will be able to reserve the equipment personally after attending the RML lab orientation and then getting trained on the equipment.

Video demonstration

The following videos demonstrate capabilities and the some aspects of operating the Sawyer robot:

Note: these are promotional and instructional videos. They are included for demonstrational purposes only. The details of actual operational procedures in RML can differ.

Important reminders

While this is designed as a human-safe robot, it is still a big robot that can do a lot of damage. Make sure the red emergency stop button is accessible at all times.
Be generally careful when working with Baxter.

Operational procedures

TBD

Shutting down procedures

Bring arm in a neutral position.
Make sure the end effectors are not in the close vicinity to foreign objects (e.g. tables).
Turn off Sawyer using power button on the controller box

Gaining access to equipment

Preparation:
Sawyer has several well defined and structured tutorials, consequently RML expects users to be familiar with Sawyer robot specs and capabilities as well as its basics of operation. Specifically, users should have knowledge of the following topics:
- ROS framework, one should go through the ROS tutorials for basic understanding.
- Sawyer uses python classes for the control of the robot. These classes are built on top of the ROS API and understanding the python classes would be essential for working on Sawyer. The breakdown on how these classes are functioning could be found at the following link: Sawyer API References
- Gazebo simulation and control using MoveIt.
Scheduling:
Once you are confident in the topics from the previous section, email the lab manager (Ivan Penskiy, ipenskiy@umd.edu) to schedule the instruction session.
Instruction session:
In the beginning of the session the user will be asked several questions to test the knowledge of Sawyer and the basics of ROS framework. The user also will have to demonstrate a Gazebo simulation of Sawyer. The following are the deliverables for the simulation:
- Spawn Sawyer in a map in Gazebo (you can use standard maps from the tutorials).
- Command Sawyer to perform a simple action.
- Run Rviz in parallel to Gazebo and show the real-time visualization of the simulation in Rviz.
After confirming knowledge and skills required to operate Baxter, the user will be instructed on rules and technical aspects of using Baxter in RML (network connection, turning ON and OFF procedures, etc).