Chico

This article describes Chico (code-name iCubLisboa01, iCub version 1.2.1), the whole-body humanoid robot of Vislab.

For demo instructions, refer to iCub demos.

TODO: to be completed and updated, in particular the firmware information below is obsolete.

Preliminaries

• the iCub has a PC104 with a flash disk configured to 10.10.1.50
• it mounts the repositories that are on the icubsrv Dell XPS laptop (10.10.1.51, username icub)
• there is a visualization support machine, the Toshiba laptop iCub laptop (10.10.1.53) to be used for demos.

The icubsrv laptop has 2 repositories:

• /exports/code-64 for the laptop (compiled for 64bit)
• /exports/code-pc104 for the robot (compiled for 32bit)

Everything running with /icub namespace

Maintenance

Arm fine calibration

Refer to http://wiki.icub.org/wiki/ArmFineCalibration

Basically, with robotMotorGui set the arm joints to [-90 15 15 90]. Visually compare the arm angles with the reference picture.

Camera calibration

Use the chessEyeTest tool ($ICUB_ROOT/contrib/src/misc/chessEyeTest):

chessEyeTest.ini [boardSize(square length); boardWidth/Height(number of squares)]
$ICUBcontrib_DIR/share/ICUBcontrib/contexts/chessEyeTest
$ICUBcontrib_DIR/share/ICUBcontrib/templates/applications/ .xml

Hardware

CAN 0, board 14 is just a spare board that lies in Chico's head (inherited from the design of the previous version of the head), not being used at the moment. It can slow down the CAN communication because the board is present and responding. If needed, we can disconnect it as shown:

Software

Updating YARP and iCub on Chico

Refer to pc104#Repositories on icubsrv laptop.

CMake bug

Due to a CMake bug, whenever you compile something that features icubmoddev (the successor to yarpdev), you need to run CMake configure once; exit; without deleting the cache, run CMake configure again and proceed. So far, this is relevant for the pc104 as well as for machines that have to run other icubmoddev instances, e.g., a server running iKinArmCtrl.

Hardware

When a joint/encoder breaks, refer to Chico joint calibration.

Firmware

Keep same Release and Version numbers; only increment Build number. Refer to this page from the official iCub manual, using the following script:

 ./updateRobot.sh updateLisboa01.txt

iCub health checkup week

On March 1st 2011 we decided to test the robot for one week, to assess its current "health" state. The results of the test are stored in iCubHealthCheckupWeek_03_2011.