License issues for contributing FRI v1.10

[jellehierck]

I am currently using an LBR7 Med robot with FRI v1.10 on it. I wanted to contribute the Client SDK for CPP of FRI v1.10 to this repository, but then saw the copyright notice in the source code of v1.10 (included below).

Am I correct in assuming that this notice in FRI v1.10 does indeed not allow sharing the source code on this repository? If not, I would be happy to contribute that FRI version.

Notice of one of the source files of Client SDK for FRI version 1.10:

/**

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

The Software is provided "AS IS" and "WITH ALL FAULTS," 
without warranty of any kind, including without limitation the warranties 
of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. 
KUKA makes no warranty that the Software is free of defects or is suitable 
for any particular purpose. In no event shall KUKA be responsible for loss 
or damages arising from the installation or use of the Software, 
including but not limited to any indirect, punitive, special, incidental 
or consequential damages of any character including, without limitation, 
damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, 
or any and all other commercial damages or losses. 
The entire risk to the quality and performance of the Software is not borne by KUKA. 
Should the Software prove defective, KUKA is not liable for the entire cost 
of any service and repair.


COPYRIGHT

All Rights Reserved
Copyright (C)  2014-2016 
KUKA Roboter GmbH
Augsburg, Germany

This material is the exclusive property of KUKA Roboter GmbH and must be returned 
to KUKA Roboter GmbH immediately upon request.  
This material and the information illustrated or contained herein may not be used, 
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole 
or in part in any way - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, 
or otherwise, without the prior written consent of KUKA Roboter GmbH.  






\file
\version {1.10}
*/

And as an unrelated personal question, is it possible/easy/backwards compatible to upgrade the FRI version on my robot and the client SDK to higher versions, or would I need to contact KUKA support for this?

[mhubii]

hi @jellehierck. Thank you for checking the license of 1.10. I am afraid this FRI cannot be distributed.

Upgrading the FRI usually requires changes to the robot controller itself and therefore KUKA's support.

You should still be able to compile but it will be less convenient. Wondering if there is a good way for it.

The changes from 1.10 to 1.11, however, might be minor. You might be able to run on 1.11 regardless.

What I would suggest, is to try bare-bones 1.11: https://github.com/lbr-stack/fri/tree/fri-1.11#build. You could even checkout fri-1.11 branch, then then overwrite with your 1.10 and do a git diff to assess the differences. This could be as simple as a fixed typo or what not.

See if you can run the demo apps. Let me know if you need help doing that.

[jellehierck]

Thanks for confirming my suspicion that v1.10 cannot be distributed. I think that this issue can be closed with that comment.

Regarding the newer versions of FRI, I'll try that in the near future! If I need any help with that, I will contact you or open another issue.

[mhubii]

any luck running on a newer FRI version @jellehierck ?

[jellehierck]

Unfortunately our LBR7 is shared by multiple projects in my organization so upgrading the FRI on the cabinet won't happen in the near future. So I have also not tried to run other FRI SDK versions.

…

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[mhubii]

you could do it manually:

1. Clone ROS 2 drivers (including some FRI version, see https://github.com/lbr-stack/lbr_fri_ros2_stack#quick-start)

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
export FRI_CLIENT_VERSION=1.15
mkdir -p lbr-stack/src && cd lbr-stack
vcs import src --input https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lbr-stack/lbr_fri_ros2_stack/humble/lbr_fri_ros2_stack/repos-fri-${FRI_CLIENT_VERSION}.yaml
rosdep install --from-paths src -i -r -y

2. Go into src/fri and replace FRI-Client-SDK_cpp.zip with yours
3. Update the version check to 1.10
   

   fri/CMakeLists.txt

   Line 56 in 269ea63

   if (NOT FRICLIENT_VERSION STREQUAL "1.15")

4. Compile

colcon build --symlink-install

I'll try to create a branch where the FRI is just loaded from a path via some CMake flag.

As an alternative we could try to contact KUKA and ask for permission, but that could be quite difficult.