Driving With Joystick

From MobileRobots Research and Academic Customer Support

Analog joystick for direct robot drive. Attaches to robot joystick port.

Back of Pioneer 3 DX/AT bracket for SICK LMS-200 showing location of onboard computer USB port.

How do I drive the robot with a joystick?

There are two ways to drive a robot with a joystick: analog direct-drive by ARCOS (or properly configured client software) using a robot base's built in robot joystick port, or via a USB joystick connected to the onboard computer.

The USB port for the joystick is typically located at the back of the laser bracket. Note that a client program (e.g. Aria demo) must be connected to the robot controller in order to use the USB joystick. ARIA includes easy to use prewritten joystick driving action classes. ARIA's useful 'demo' example program enables USB joystick driving when in teleoperation mode. ARIA also includes several simpler example programs (see /usr/local/Aria/examples) that include joystick drive (e.g. 'teleop', 'sickTeleop', 'joydriveAction').

Pioneer 3 AT, PeopleBot and PowerBot models all come with the robot joystick port. On Pioneer DX models it is optional. If you are interested in adding a joystick port to a robot, contact sales@mobilerobots.com for more details. Joystick hardware may not be available for some older robots.

Robots with an onboard computer and laser navigation (with SICK laser rangefinder) come with a computer USB port on the laser bracket. Robots without a laser may be ordered with an external USB port added if requested.