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Teleop Twist with the Create® 3 Robot

Details

In this project, you'll build the Create 3 Examples repository from GitHub and drive the Create® 3 Robot around with your computer's keyboard.

Downloads and Resources

Build the Create® 3 Examples Repository

Example nodes to drive the iRobot® Create® 3 Educational Robot.

Dependencies

Build instructions

First, source your ROS 2 workspaces with all the required dependencies. Then, you are ready to clone and build this repository. You should only have to do this once per install.

mkdir -p create3_examples_ws/src
cd create3_examples_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/iRobotEducation/create3_examples.git
cd ..
rosdep install --from-path src --ignore-src -yi
colcon build

Initialization instructions

You will have to do this in every new session in which you wish to use these examples: 

source ~/create3_examples_ws/install/local_setup.sh

Teleoperation & Teleprescence Project Instructions

In this example, you will learn to control a Create®3 robot with the keyboard on your laptop. Being able to control the robot from a distance makes it teleoperational. To make it have telepresence, design a phone stand that can attach to the top of the Create®3 robot. Facetime or Zoom into your phone so you can see the environment where you are driving the robot. This allows you to feel present as your robot navigates around.

A Create 3 robot driving around a classroom from a student perspective A Create 3 robot driving around a classroom from the robot's perspective

Get Started

Make sure to follow the instructions above in the "Build the Create 3 Examples Repository" section to install the necessary package and dependencies for this example.

Install Dependencies

First, let's install the ROS Teleop Twist package. Copy & paste this line into the open terminal: 

sudo apt install ros-galactic-teleop-twist-keyboard

Disabling Motion Control Safety

Next, we need to disable the motion control safety features of the Create®3 robot. This will allow you to drive the robot in reverse. 

ros2 param set /motion_control safety_override full
Then we can run the teleop_twist_keyboard package that we previously installed. 
ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard

What You'll See

When you run this package & executable you will see the following information in your terminal. Now you can use the keys on your keyboard to remotely control your Create®3 robot. Happy Driving!

Reading from the keyboard and Publishing to Twist!
---------------------------
Moving around:
 u i o
 j k l
 m , .

For Holonomic mode (strafing), hold down the shift key:
---------------------------
 U I O
 J K L
 M < >

t : up (+z)
b : down (-z)

anything else : stop

q/z : increase/decrease max speeds by 10%
w/x : increase/decrease only linear speed by 10%
e/c : increase/decrease only angular speed by 10%

CTRL-C to quit