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Base Remote Control Service

The base remote control service implements an input controller as a remote control for a base. This uses the input API to make it easy to add remote drive controls for your rover or other mobile robot with a controller like a gamepad.

Add the base remote control service after configuring your machine with a base and input controller to control the linear and angular velocity of the base with the controller’s button or joystick controls.

Control mode is determined by the configuration attribute "control_mode", for which there are five options:

"arrowControl": Arrow buttons control speed and angle
"triggerSpeedControl": Trigger button controls speed and joystick controls angle
"buttonControl": Four buttons (usually X, Y, A, B) control speed and angle
"joystickControl": One joystick controls speed and angle
"droneControl": Two joysticks control speed and angle

You can monitor the input from these controls in the CONTROL tab of the Viam app.

Used with

Base*

Input Controller*

Movement Sensor

* Required for use

Configuration

You must configure a base with a movement sensor as part of your machine to be able to use a base remote control service.

First, make sure your base is physically assembled and powered on. Then, configure the service:

Navigate to the CONFIGURE tab of your machine’s page in the Viam app. Click the + icon next to your machine part in the left-hand menu and select Service. Select the base remote control type. Enter a name or use the suggested name for your service and click Create.

In your base remote control service’s configuration panel, copy and paste the following JSON object into the attributes field:

{
  "base": "<your-base-name>",
  "input_controller": "<your-controller-name>"
}

Edit the attributes as applicable to your machine, according to the table below.

For example:

An example configuration for a base remote control service in the Viam app Config Builder.

{
  "name": "<your-base-remote-control-service>",
  "type": "base_remote_control",
  "attributes": {
    "base": "<your-base-name>",
    "input_controller": "<your-controller-name>"
  }
}

{
  "name": "my-base-remote-control-service",
  "type": "base_remote_control",
  "attributes": {
    "base": "my-base",
    "input_controller": "my-input-controller",
    "control_mode": "arrowControl"
  }
}

Edit and fill in the attributes as applicable. The following attributes are available for base remote control services:

Name	Type	Required?	Description
`base`	string	Required	The `name` of the base you have configured for the base you are operating with this service.
`input_controller`	string	Required	The `name` of the input controller you have configured for the base you are operating with this service.
`control_mode`	string	Optional	The mode of remote control you want to use. Options: `"arrowControl"` `"triggerSpeedControl"` `"buttonControl"` `"joystickControl"` `"droneControl"` Default: `"arrowControl"`
`max_angular_degs_per_sec`	float	Optional	The max angular velocity for the base in degrees per second.
`max_linear_mm_per_sec`	float	Optional	The max linear velocity for the base in meters per second.

API

The base remote control service supports the following methods:

Method Name	Description
`ControllerInputs`	Get a list of inputs from the controller that are being monitored for that control mode.
`Reconfigure`	Reconfigure this resource.
`DoCommand`	Execute model-specific commands that are not otherwise defined by the service API.
`Close`	Close out of all remote control related systems.

Tip

The following code examples assume that you have a machine configured with a base named "my_base", input controller named "my_controller", and base remote control service named "my_base_rc_service". Make sure to add the required code to connect to your machine and import any required packages at the top of your code file. Go to your machine’s CONNECT tab on the Viam app and select the Code sample page for sample code to connect to your machine.

ControllerInputs

Get a list of inputs from the controller that are being monitored for that control mode.

Parameters:

None.

Returns:

([]input.Control): A list of inputs from the controller that are being monitored for that control mode.

Example:

// Get the list of inputs from the controller that are being monitored for that control mode.
inputs := baseRCService.ControllerInputs()

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

Reconfigure

Reconfigure this resource. Reconfigure must reconfigure the resource atomically and in place.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.
deps (Dependencies): The resource dependencies.
conf (Config): The resource configuration.

Returns:

(error): An error, if one occurred.

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

DoCommand

Execute model-specific commands that are not otherwise defined by the service API. For built-in service models, any model-specific commands available are covered with each model’s documentation. If you are implementing your own base remote control service and add features that have no built-in API method, you can access them with DoCommand.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.
cmd (map[string]interface{}): The command to execute.

Returns:

(map[string]interface{}): The command response.
(error): An error, if one occurred.

Example:

myBaseRemoteControlSvc, err := baseremotecontrol.FromRobot(machine, "my_base_remote_control_svc")

command := map[string]interface{}{"cmd": "test", "data1": 500}
result, err := myBaseRemoteControlSvc.DoCommand(context.Background(), command)

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

Close

Close out of all remote control related systems.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.

Returns:

(error): An error, if one occurred.

Example:

baseRCService, err := baseremotecontrol.FromRobot(machine, "my_baseRCService_svc")

err := baseRCService.Close(context.Background())

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

Have questions, or want to meet other people working on robots? Join our Community Discord.

If you notice any issues with the documentation, feel free to file an issue or edit this file.

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