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Starting up the PR2
Description: This tutorial guides you step by step through starting the PR2 robotTutorial Level: BEGINNER
Next Tutorial: Running the PR2 dashboard
Contents
Quickstart
Log in
Assuming that you already have a user account and the robot is powered on (Red Breaker is on)
ssh username@prx
Claim the robot
Once logged in, you will see whether or not someone is using the robot:
If it is in use, you will see something like:
Active User: vpradeep Message: Testing my super cool robot app Acquired: Wed Apr 28 11:39:15 2010
If it is available, you will see:
The robot is not claimed by anyone.
Launch the robot
To claim the robot:
robot claim --message="Hello World! I'm testing my super cool PR2 app"
Once claimed, you can start the robot:
robot start
This will bring up the robot's software. However, you won't see any of the motors do anything, since the circuit breakers & motors haven't been enabled yet.
Enable Motors
To enable the breakers motors, you can either use the dashboard or you can simply transition the run-stop from Stop to Go after the robot software has been started.
You will now see the various joints move while going through the initial calibration procedure. After all the joints have finished calibrating, the robot will go into a position hold mode, thus signaling that it has completed coming up.
Note that any problems during this procedure will be visible in the dashboard.
Note: Sometimes the robot motors will not respond even after pressing the run-stops. We believe the order in which the buttons are pressed matters. After pushing both the red stop button on the wireless controller and on the back of the PR2, press the wireless stop first, and then the run-stop on the back. The robot should begin moving and showing you its motors are good to go.
IF the robot is still not responding, you may have hot-plugged the robot during boot causing a failure in the booting of the MCBs. If that is the case, fully power off the robot and re-start it following the above instructions.
Stop the Robot
Once you're done using the robot, you should stop it to allow others to use it.
robot stop
Follow the on-screen commands to kill all of you processes.
Changing The Robot Environment (In Groovy & Hydro only)
To enter the Groovy environment for the PR2
robot groovy
To enter the Hydro environment for the PR2
robot hydro
Other Tools
PR2 Systemcheck
To run a self-test of all PR2 systems, run:
sudo pr2-systemcheck
You should run robot stop before you run systemcheck.
Turning Off PR2
To turn off the PR2, run:
sudo pr2-shutdown
After the red lights on the PR2 servers go off, turn off the main breaker to power off the robot.
Reboot:
sudo pr2-shutdown --reboot
PR2 Manual
For a more detailed explanation of how to bring up the robot, please refer to PR2 Manual. It will take you step by step through starting the PR2 robot.
