perceptronics

A depth camera on the robot's wrist finds the part; the 3D Pick node on the pendant puts the gripper on it. This page gets it onto a Universal Robots e-Series (PolyScope 5).

Install it: one USB stick, one file

1. Download the URCap (don't rename it):

• perceptronic-ps5-0.9.1.urcap

2. Copy it onto a USB stick, at the top, not in a folder. The stick must be FAT32 (most sticks are). Eject it properly before you pull it out.

3. On the pendant: plug the stick in, then ☰ → Settings → System → URCaps → + → pick perceptronic-ps5-0.9.1.urcap → Open → Restart when PolyScope asks. That's the install: PolyScope's own URCaps screen, the same way every URCap goes on. Nothing on the stick runs by itself, and the robot restarts only when you tap Restart.

4. Use it. Installation → URCaps → Perceptronic: type the camera computer's address. In your program: your gripper's Open → 3D Pick → your gripper's Close.

If the file picker lists a second ._perceptronic-ps5-0.9.1.urcap, a Mac wrote the stick: pick the one without ._ (or write the stick with scripts/urcap5-usb.sh, which leaves those off).

The camera computer (a Raspberry Pi with the D435 on its USB port) is set up once: site/public/quickstart-ur.html. PolyScope X installs its URCap through System Manager: integrations/urcap/README.md.

Developers: rebuilding the URCap

After changing the URCap: make urcap5-package rebuilds integrations/urcap/dist/perceptronic-ps5-<ver>.urcap (commit it), then scripts/urcap5-usb.sh writes it to a stick from a Mac without the ._ files Finder leaves, and the pendant's URCaps screen installs it as above.

By hand: a cell in three commands

The toolkit was built to be driven by an agent; this is the door for a person. From a checkout with any Python 3.10+ (nothing to install):

python3 -m perceptronics init                     # a few questions -> ./mycell.env
python3 -m perceptronics --cell ./mycell.env doctor   # camera, robot, calibration: what's wrong, with the fix
python3 -m perceptronics --cell ./mycell.env up       # the cockpit; the page opens; the pendant reaches it

init asks for the robot (UR e-Series, PolyScope X, the simulator, or none), its address, the arm, the tool length, the bracket and the camera, every answer with a default, and writes an ordinary cell file you can edit. up is the cockpit with no flags: the camera, the robot from the cell, listening where the pendant can reach it. On macOS the camera needs sudo in front.

For an agent — the two MCP servers (MCP.md): urctl-mcp for the robot and perceptronics-vision-mcp for the camera and the 3D guidance, each one line in an MCP client's config, each with a --no-motion setting that serves the readings and the planning without anything that moves the arm.

More

• perceptronics/ARCHITECTURE.md: how it works, the code map, the cockpit's API, adding a robot, running it all without hardware
• integrations/urcap/perceptronic-ps5/README.md: the PolyScope 5 URCap in full: upgrading, every screen
• site/public/quickstart-ur.html: the kit, the camera computer, setting up a cell
• perceptronics/README.md: the camera, depth quality, hand-eye
• CLAUDE.md: working notes, protocols, and the gotchas that cost real time

Working on perceptronics itself: make install-dev, make test, make lint; PRs go to dev (perceptronics/ARCHITECTURE.md).