Control your robot arm
How to remote control a robot arm with a keyboard, in VR, with an API or a leader arm?
- Before continuing, make sure you have installed the phosphobot software and completed the quickstart.
- If you don’t have a robot arm, you can get hardware here.
- If you built your own robot arm, you should first calibrate it.
You can control your robot arm:
- using your keyboard
- through the HTTP API
- with the Meta Quest app
- using a leader arm
How to control the SO-100 with a keyboard?
Use phosphobot
to control your SO-100 robot arm with your keyboard, using the arrow keys
to move the robot arm in the desired direction.
Go to localhost
in your web browser to access the phosphobot dashboard. Go to Keyboard Control. Click on the Start robot button to start controlling the robot arm with your keyboard. Click on the Stop robot button to stop controlling the robot arm with your keyboard.
Send your first commands to the API
Once your control module is connected to your home WiFi, you can send your first command to the robot arm.
-
Go to the interactive API docs of the control module at phosphobot.local/docs. This page lets you send commands to the robot arm.
-
Trigger the
/move/init
endpoint to initialize the robot (clickTry it out
and then pressExecute
). -
Your robot arm moves to the default position. It’s alive! 🎉
-
Now, you can call the
/move/absolute
endpoint to move the robot to a specific position. The distances are in centimeters, and the angles in degrees.
Meta Quest app
Set up your Meta Quest app
The phospho dev kit is delivered with a Meta Quest app for teleoperation. In this section, we will set up the app on your Meta Quest headset.
-
After purchasing your phospho dev kit, you’ll receive an email invitation to the Meta Alpha program of the phospho teleop app. Follow the email instructions to link your Meta account to the Alpha program.
-
Make sure your Meta Quest headset is turned on and connected to WiFi. Once you’ve linked your account, the Meta Quest will automatically download the app. This can take a moment.
- Open the phospho teleop app from the library. Once downloading is done, you can open the software library on the Meta Quest. In the list of All apps, you’ll see the phospho teleop app. This app is automatically updated with the latest releases.
Use the Meta Quest app
Connect to the dev kit through WiFi in the phospho Meta Quest app.
- In the Meta Quest, open the phospho teleop application. You should see a screen displaying phosphobot along with the server ping. Click the Connect button using the
Trigger Button
.
- After connecting, you should see the main camera feed if a camera is connected. Move the windows with the
Grip button
to organize your space.
- Press
A
once to start teleoperation and begin moving your controller.- The robot will naturally follow the movement of your controller. Press the
Trigger button
to close the gripper. - Press
A
again to stop the teleoperation. The robot will stop.
- The robot will naturally follow the movement of your controller. Press the
You just teleoperated your robot arm! 🎉
Using a leader arm
But if you have a leader arm, we offer some basic support.
- Plug the leader arm and run the server with the special flag (replace USB_PORT with the actual usb port of the device. Run
phosphobot info
to get it.)
-
Calibrate the leader arm the same way you calibrated the robot arm.
-
Then use the endpoint
/move/mimick
to control the robot arm
What’s next?
Record a dataset
How to record a dataset with your robot
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