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ALOHA: A Low-cost Open-source Hardware System for Bimanual Teleoperation

Project Website: https://tonyzhaozh.github.io/aloha/

This codebase contains implementation for teleoperation and data collection with the ALOHA hardware. To build ALOHA, follow the Hardware Assembly Tutorial and the quick start guide below. To train imitation learning algorithms, you would also need to install ACT.

Repo Structure

Quick start guide

Hardware selection

We suggest using a "heavy-duty" computer if possible.

In particular, at least 6 USB3 ports are needed. 4 ports for robot connections and 2 ports for cameras. We have seen cases that a machine was not able to stably connect to all 4 robot arms simultaneously over USB, especially when USB hubs are used.

Software selection -- OS:

Currently tested and working configurations:

Ongoing testing (compatibility effort underway):

Software installation - ROS:

  1. Install ROS and interbotix software following https://docs.trossenrobotics.com/interbotix_xsarms_docs/
  2. This will create the directory ~/interbotix_ws which contains src.
  3. git clone this repo inside ~/interbotix_ws/src
  4. source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.sh && source ~/interbotix_ws/devel/setup.sh
  5. sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-usb-cam && sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-cv-bridge
  6. run catkin_make inside ~/interbotix_ws, make sure the build is successful
  7. go to ~/interbotix_ws/src/interbotix_ros_toolboxes/interbotix_xs_toolbox/interbotix_xs_modules/src/interbotix_xs_modules/arm.py, find function publish_positions. Change self.T_sb = mr.FKinSpace(self.robot_des.M, self.robot_des.Slist, self.joint_commands) to self.T_sb = None. This prevents the code from calculating FK at every step which delays teleoperation.

Hardware installation:

The goal of this section is to run roslaunch aloha 4arms_teleop.launch, which starts communication with 4 robots and 4 cameras. It should work after finishing the following steps:

Step 1: Connect 4 robots to the computer via USB, and power on. Do not use extension cable or usb hub.

Step 2: Set max current for gripper motors

Step 3: Setup 4 cameras

At this point, have a new terminal

conda deactivate # if conda shows up by default
source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.sh && source ~/interbotix_ws/devel/setup.sh
roslaunch aloha 4arms_teleop.launch

If no error message is showing up, the computer should be successfully connected to all 4 cameras and all 4 robots.

Trouble shooting

Software installation - Conda:

conda create -n aloha python=3.8.10
conda activate aloha
pip install torchvision
pip install torch
pip install pyquaternion
pip install pyyaml
pip install rospkg
pip install pexpect
pip install mujoco==2.3.7
pip install dm_control==1.0.14
pip install opencv-python
pip install matplotlib
pip install einops
pip install packaging
pip install h5py

Testing teleoperation

Notice: Before running the commands below, be sure to place all 4 robots in their sleep positions, and open master robot's gripper. All robots will rise to a height that is easy for teleoperation.

# ROS terminal
conda deactivate
source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.sh && source ~/interbotix_ws/devel/setup.sh
roslaunch aloha 4arms_teleop.launch

# Right hand terminal
conda activate aloha
cd ~/interbotix_ws/src/aloha/aloha_scripts
python3 one_side_teleop.py right

# Left hand terminal
conda activate aloha
cd ~/interbotix_ws/src/aloha/aloha_scripts
python3 one_side_teleop.py left

The teleoperation will start when the master side gripper is closed.

Example Usages

To set up a new terminal, run:

conda activate aloha
cd ~/interbotix_ws/src/aloha/aloha_scripts

The one_side_teleop.py we ran is for testing teleoperation and has no data collection. To collect data for an episode, run:

python3 record_episodes.py --dataset_dir <data save dir> --episode_idx 0

This will store a hdf5 file at <data save dir>. To change episode length and other params, edit constants.py directly.

To visualize the episode collected, run:

python3 visualize_episodes.py --dataset_dir <data save dir> --episode_idx 0

To replay the episode collected with real robot, run:

python3 replay_episodes.py --dataset_dir <data save dir> --episode_idx 0

To lower 4 robots before e.g. cutting off power, run:

python3 sleep.py