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Getting started

The MANUS SDK is our library that allows you to receive data/interact with MANUS gloves. The SDK is compatible with both Windows and Linux. The SDK allows you complete freedom to integrate MANUS gloves into your application/platform.

Overview

The SDK comes with two example projects (for C++ and Python): SDK Client and SDK MinimalClient and a ROS2 Package. The SDK Client is a full example demonstrating all functionality from the SDK. It includes initialization, connection, pairing/un-pairing, glove calibration, skeleton loading/saving etcetera. While the SDK MinimalClient is a bare-bones example that demonstrates the minimal amount of code needed to get the SDK connected and receiving glove data. The ROS2 Package is a ROS2 wrapper around the SDK that allows you to easily integrate MANUS gloves into your ROS2 project.

Installation

  1. Go to MANUS Downloads and download the MANUS SDK package for your platform: MANUS_Core_<version>_SDK_Windows.zip for Windows or MANUS_Core_<version>_SDK_Linux.tar.gz for Linux. Extract the archive to a location of your choice.
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Both packages share the same layout:

  • C++ - Contains the C++ examples

    • SDKClient - The SDK Client example, a CMake project that includes the ManusSDK library
    • SDKMinimalClient - The SDK Minimal Client example, including the ManusSDK library
    • SDKClient.sln - Visual Studio solution that builds both examples (Windows package only)

  • Python - Contains the Python SDK and its examples

    • manus_sdk - The Python SDK package with pre-compiled extensions
    • examples - The Python examples: sdk_client.py and minimal_client.py
    • QUICKSTART.md, setup.py and tests

  • ROS2 package - The MANUS ROS2 package (Linux package only)

  • MANUS Core Dashboard (Windows build) / MANUS Core Dashboard (Linux build) - A ready-to-run build of the MANUS Core Dashboard

  • Third-party notices - License texts of the open-source components included in the ManusSDK binaries

  • Getting started.md and LICENSE

Windows

The SDK Client is a CMake project, see Building the SDK Client. Alternatively, the provided C++/SDKClient.sln opens both the SDK Client and the SDK Minimal Client in Visual Studio.

Linux

For compilation and execution on Linux, a number of dependencies are required. Both C++ project folders contain an install-dependencies.sh script that installs them. The SDK Client is built with CMake, the SDK Minimal Client with the provided Makefile. Please refer to the full Linux guide for exact installation instructions.

SDK Integrated vs Remote

The SDK can be used in two ways: integrated and remote. The integrated SDK is used when the SDK is fully integrated into the application and functions fully standalone directly talking to the glove hardware, thus not requiring a MANUS Core connection. This removes the dependency on MANUS Core. This is useful for applications that want to deeply integrate MANUS glove devices, this will however require manually handling glove calibration, pairing/un-pairing, tracker data.

The SDK is used in remote mode when the SDK is used in conjunction with MANUS Core. This is generally easier to implement because all glove management is handled by MANUS Core Dashboard, and the SDK only needs to connect to MANUS Core and receives glove data. It's necessary when using multiple glove pairs and when wanting to use the built-in tracking system integrations (SteamVR, ART, Vicon).

The SDK is compatible with both Linux and Windows. Please refer to the installation instructions above. Do be mindful that MANUS Core itself is only available on Windows, and thus when using the SDK in remote mode on Linux does require a separate machine running MANUS Core on Windows.

For more information on how to use the SDK in integrated mode, please refer to the SDK Integrated article.