Use your Niryo Robot

Every Ned robot is ready to use right out of the box, for example, with Niryo Studio. However, the robot offers many more possibilities if you want to delve deeper into its functionalities.

In this tutorial, we will explain how the robot is set up and the various options available for controlling it.

Connecting to the Robot

You can connect to your robot in multiple ways, including direct Ethernet, Wi-Fi hotspot, or LAN.

For more information on how to connect to your robot, refer to this guide.

Once your robot is accessible from your computer, you can interact with it in three ways:

• Via ROS Multimachine.

  ROS implements a method for communication between nodes running on different machines. By specifying the location of the Niryo Robot ROS Master Node to your computer, you can communicate with any ROS node as if you were directly connected to the robot. See the tutorial on the ROS wiki for more information.

• Via Niryo Studio

  Niryo Studio provides all the tools you need to control the robot. Please refer to the Niryo Studio documentation for more information.

• Via ssh (for advanced users only).

  Port 22 is open without restriction. The default user is niryo and its password is robotics. You can open a terminal and connect using ssh throught this command:

  ssh with IP

     ssh niryo@<robot_ip>
  

  If your robot is connected to a network with a DNS server you can replace the robot IP with its domain name:

  ssh with DNS

     ssh niryo@<robot_model>-<robot_id>.local
  

  Robot model can be either ned2 or ned3pro.

  ssh example

  ssh niryo@ned3pro-7b-066-885.local
  

Robot setup

To help you better understand the OS setup on the robot, we provide an overview of its architecture and key components.

Attention

This document is not intended to provide a complete guide to installing the robot’s OS from a blank SD card. Instead, it aims to give you insights into the system’s architecture. Some installation steps are referenced in Ubuntu 20.04 installation for situations where you may need to reinstall specific components (e.g., the catkin_ws workspace).

System setup

The robot operates on a customized Ubuntu Server 20.04 for ARM, tailored specifically for the Raspberry Pi 4B.

It includes the following components:

• ROS noetic and its requirements

• Sound driver

• Led ring driver

• Robot System services (connectivity, databases, flask server)

• Basic development tools (compilation, editing tools)

We took care to update and upgrade the system before sending it to you.

Attention

We cannot guarantee the system’s stability if you attempt to update it manually (e.g., using apt). We strongly recommend against performing such updates.

Home setup

The system is preconfigured with a default user account: niryo. The core robot programs are installed in the niryo user’s home directory: /home/niryo.

In this directory, you have:

• catkin_ws: Contains the source code and compiled binaries for the Niryo ROS stack.

• firmware_updater: Responsible for updating the firmware of stepper motors, the end effector panel, and other embedded systems.

• niryo_robot_saved_files: A collection of files saved on the robot (programs, trajectories, …), utilized by Niryo Studio.

• system_software: Holds configuration files for system-wide functionalities.

Services and daemons

Two services are used on the robot:

• niryo_system_software : It launches the flask server for API communication with the robot at startup.

• niryo_robot_ros : It launches the stack at startup.

If you want to start, stop or disable one of those services, please refer to the dedicated manual.

Starting the robot manually (for advanced users only)

Before continuing, be sure you know what you are doing.

You will need to have a ssh access setup to continue.

Stopping the service

First, you need to stop the Niryo ROS Stack, which starts automatically when the robot boots up. Use this system linux command to do so:

sudo service niryo_robot_ros stop

Starting the robot

To start the robot, launch the following commands in a ssh terminal:

Replace <robot_model> with either ned2 or ned3pro, depending on your robot.

source ~/setup.bash
roslaunch niryo_robot_bringup niryo_<robot_model>_robot.launch

Robot launch options

Name	Default Value	Description
log_level	INFO	Log level to display for ROS loggers
ttl_enabled	true	Enable or disable the TTL bus usage. This feature is used for debug mainly and can lead to an unstable stack.
database	true	Launch database related ROS nodes. This feature is used for debug mainly and can lead to an unstable stack.
debug	false	Launch in debug mode. For development and debug only.
timed	true	To launch the node using timed_roslaunch. If enabled, will first launch sound and light nodes to have a better user experience. If disabled, the node is directly launched

Changing the log level

Before launching the robot, you can change the configuration file for the ROS Logger in order to change the log level displayed on the terminal. This file is located in /home/niryo/catkin_ws/src/niryo_robot_bringup/config/niryo_robot_trace.conf.

It defines the logs levels for all cpp packages, based on log4cxx configuration file syntax. Please see documentation of rosconsole or log4cxx for more information.

By default, the level is set to INFO, you can change this value if you want more logs.

# Set the default ros output to warning and higher
log4j.logger.ros=INFO

Attention

DEBUG level is very verbose, you can deteriorate the performances of your robot by doing so.

You can also choose to change only the log level of a specific cpp package by uncommenting one of the following lines and optionally change the associated log level.

#log4j.logger.ros.can_driver = DEBUG
log4j.logger.ros.common = DEBUG
log4j.logger.ros.conveyor_interface = ERROR