controls.md

The controller.py provides an API to control the robot by emulating a PS4 controller, similar to this. Main difference is some keybinds are different, but it can also be called from code.

The UDP message

This is a breakdown of the dictionary's fields that is sent through UDPComms to the robot.

Field	Value	Comments
lx	[-1,1]	Walk left or right
ly	[-1,1]	Walk front or backwards
rx	[-1,1]	Turn left or right (yaw)
ry	[-1,1]	Tilt up or down (pitch)
L2	0	Nothing
R2	0	Nothing
R1	1 or 0	Toggle trot/rest
L1	1 or 0	Toggle activation/deactivation
dpadx	[-1,1]	Move body up or down
dpady	[-1,1]	Roll left/right (roll)
square	0	Nothing
circle	0	Nothing
triangle	0	Nothing
x	0	Nothing
message_rate	20	Rate of which messages are sent

Note: values [-1,1] means any values between -1 and 1 and values 1 or 0 are a toggle. This means that the first time 1 is sent, it will cause the value on the pupper to change. A 0 needs to be sent before another 1 will cause a toggle.

It is a good idea to use some sort of smoothing for lx, ly and rx to avoid abrupt stops.

Keybinds

If running the controller manually, these are the controls:

Keybind	Function
space	Toggle trot/rest
v	Toggle activation
w/s	Move forward/back
a/d	Turn left/right
q/e	Move left/right
x	Stop any sort of movement

Control sequence

Robot must first be activated, this will also trigger calibration if the pupper software was run with the --zero flag. Then it must be in trotting mode and only then can it be controlled with other functions.