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8.1.1. Introduction

Warning

This section is for the Classic arms only!

Before you get started, make make sure you’ve setup the dVRK arms first:

• Hardware setup

• Connectivity

• Configuration files

The dVRK Classic arms use a fair amount of analog signals that need to be calibrated for better accuracy. The initial values in the JSON IO configuration file are generated from the .cal file provided by ISI. Unfortunately, these values don’t take into account the differences between the original ISI controllers and the dVRK controllers, so it is required to calibrate each set of arm/controller.

There are a number of different calibration steps to perform, different for each type of arm. The relevant calibrations for each arm are listed below. The “single step” links point to different procedures, make sure you follow all the steps for each arm.

Calibration steps for da Vinci Classic

	PSM{1,2,3}	MTM{L,R}	ECM	SUJ
Motor current offsets	single step	single step	single step	single step
Brake current offsets			single step
Potentiometer scales	single step	single step	single step	single step
Potentiometer offsets	step 1 and step 2	single step	single step	single step
MTM gripper		single step
Brake release current			single step
Gravity compensation		single step