firmware

Firmware

The firmware is the code that is loaded on the robot and that generates the walking gait and talks to the motors. It is currently only adapted for the original 12-dof Metabot (4 legs, 3 motors per leg).

Putting the firmware on the robot

Linux

You need to install the following packets:

$ apt-get install python python-serial

To put the firmware on the robot, simply cd into the firmware/ repository and run the installation script:

sudo python robotis-loader.py /dev/ttyACM0 metabot2.bin

This should reset the board and then output some progress bar, your firmware is now on the robot!

Windows

You'll need python and pyserial. Then, be sure to have the drivers. You can install simply OpenCM IDE for that.

Then, run:

sudo python robotis-loader.py COM4 metabot2.bin

Replace COM4 with the right serial port (you can see it in OpenCM ide or in the devices manager).

The terminal

Connecting to the on-board terminal

Linux

You can open a serial connection with the robot using cu or screen. You can use for instance:

you@yourmachine: cu -l /dev/ttyACM0
Connected.

$  

Type "~." to quit cu.

Windows

On Windows, you can use a serial client such as PuTTy. Just choose "Serial" as connection mode and enter "COMx", where x is the number of the device.

You can find the number of the device in the devices manager.

Commands

Basics

start: Enable the motors

This will enable the motors. The LEDs will turn green and the torque will rise slowly until the robot reaches it default position.

stop: Stop the motors

Turns the LEDs red and shuts the torque down.

beep [freq] [duration]: Emit a beep

This will emit a beep using the internal buzzer, using freq Hz and duration ms.

Controller

Here are commands that can be used to control the motion of the robot

dx, dy, turn: Controls the robot

These are parameters that control the robot speed. Actually, dx and dy control the size of the each step (in mm) and turn the angle of each step (in °).

freq: Steps per second

This is the number of step the robot does on each second.

h: Robot height

This is the (z, in mm) height of the robot while it walks.

r: Radius

This is the radius of the legs (in mm), i.e the distance of the legs to the center of the body while walking.

alt: Legs altitude

This parameters controls the height the legs are lifted up (in mm) while walking.

crab: Crab position

This is an angle (in °) that can be positive or negative and allows to get a crab-like position while walking.

Building, developing & hacking the firmware

See the firmware source README