LaRobot

LaRobot is an environment for the YAM robot arms. It records motions, simulates the arms, moves them in the real world and trains a policy to mimic the motions. The setup of the arms and the cameras follows the ABC project.

This is a student project in which we want to learn how to build a robotics and AI system ourselves. The goal is to understand how the parts work together. If the robot arm does the job at the end, that is a good bonus but holds no priority over understanding how it works.

---

How we work

• Keep pull requests below 500 lines of code.
• Write every line by hand, even if you take the code from somewhere else. Then you get a chance to understand what happens, and why it happens.
• Another team member reviews your code.
• Every building block of the system is a GitHub issue. Take one, and solve it.
• Write in the issue what you learned, and why you built it the way it is.

Installation

Linux

Running the application without root access

Libraries such as pyspacemouse communicate with the SpaceMouse through /dev/hidraw*. These device files are not always accessible to regular users, resulting in Permission denied or Failed to open device errors.

A udev rule provides permanent access without running the application as root.

1. Find the device ID

Connect the SpaceMouse and run:

lsusb

Example:

ID 256f:c635 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Compact

Here, 256f is the vendor ID and c635 is the product ID.

2. Create a udev rule

Open a new rule file:

sudoedit /etc/udev/rules.d/50-spacemouse.rules

Add the following, replacing the IDs if necessary:

KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", ATTRS{idVendor}=="256f", ATTRS{idProduct}=="c635", MODE="0660", TAG+="uaccess"

The 50- prefix ensures that the rule runs before systemd applies user-access permissions.

3. Apply the rule

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=hidraw

Unplug and reconnect the SpaceMouse.

4. Test access

pyspacemouse --list-connected
pyspacemouse --test

The device should now work without sudo.

Headless systems

TAG+="uaccess" is intended for users logged into a local desktop. For SSH-only or headless systems, create a dedicated group:

sudo groupadd -f spacemouse
sudo usermod -aG spacemouse "$USER"

Replace TAG+="uaccess" in the rule with:

GROUP="spacemouse"

Then reload the rules, reconnect the device, and log out and back in.

Avoid tutorials that rely on the plugdev group: it does not exist by default on some distributions, including Arch Linux. Also avoid MODE="0666", which unnecessarily gives every local user access to the device.