RapidLaser (Vision Tracking Gimbal Demo)

RapidLaser is a mechanical demonstration designed to showcase the precision of RSI's RMP EtherCAT Motion Controller, specifically its RealTimeTasks feature which allows you to execute deterministic user logic, motion control, and I/O operations without specialized real-time programming expertise.

It features a two-axis gimbal mechanism that uses Basler's Pylon SDK and OpenCV to track a colored ball in real time, dynamically positioning a laser to keep the ball centered.

🚀 Features

• Real-time tracking using OpenCV & Pylon SDK
• Two-axis gimbal system
• Motion control using the RMP EtherCAT Motion Controller
• Multi-platform UI developed using Avalonia UI
• Linux PREEMPT_RT for sub millisecond deterministic control

📁 Project Structure

• rttasks/ - Core source code containg the RMP RealTimeTasks functions
• scripts/ - Utility scripts for running the UI, and more
• servers/ - Contains the .NET 10 camera server for sending images to the UI
• ui/ - Main desktop demo UI/app (RapidLaser.Desktop)

📦 Prerequisites

• Linux PC
• RMP SDK
• .NET 9.0 SDK & .NET 10 SDK
• Basler camera (with Pylon SDK)
• OpenCV

🏁 Quick Start

🖥️ Run the UI

Navigate to the scripts/ folder and run the appropriate script for your platform:

Windows

1. Open a Unix-style shell like (Git Bash)
2. Run command: ./ui_run.sh

Linux

1. Open terminal
2. Make file executable: chmod +x ui_run.sh
3. Run command: ./ui_run.sh

Note: the ui_run.sh script will call dotnet publish only if it does not locate an executable in the temp/ folder

📝 Blog

See the blog for detailed information here: https://www.roboticsys.com/case-studies/vision-tracking-gimbal-demo