Robot Joystick

From MobileRobots Research and Academic Customer Support

How do I drive the robot with a joystick?

There are two ways to drive a robot with a joystick: direct-drive by ARCOS with a robot base's built in analog 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 robots also have the capability to directly drive using a specially designed inductive analog joystick. The joystick is connected to a dedicated joystick port on the robot, and passes information to ARCOS, which allows for the direct control of the robot.

Pioneer 3 AT, PeopleBot and PowerBot models all come with the 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.