Controller Page
To return to the Management page, click the red exit symbol.
Controller manager status
This section indicates what the controller manager is currently doing, and will update automatically as you send requests.
Stop controller
Click the stop button to stop the running controller, if there is one.
Start ... controller
Press any of the "start" buttons to start one of the test controllers running. A short description of each is given on the page.
See Autonomous mode for more description of the behaviour when you start this controller.
The robot may move, and you should prepare for this — in particular, make sure it is not able to fall!
Demo controller options
The demo controller has various configuration options, which can be changed either before or whilst the controller is running.
For information on how to "wrangle" a MiRo in demo mode, see the Wrangling page.
Demo flags
Flags modify the demo controller's behaviour—some are intended to account for user preferences, some for an unpredictable environment, and some may be relevant only to particular use cases.
Cliff sensor sensitivity
Readings from the cliff sensors will vary a fair bit depending on the environment in which MiRo is used. Cliff sensors are used both to drive the cliff reflex (try not to fall off edges) and to favour actions in the demo that move away from cliffs that have already been detected.
A meter is provided — click "Enable sensor readings" and the slider below will indicate the average cliff sensor reading across the two sides. You can move your MiRo to a cliff, and to a safe place without a cliff, to measure what the cliff sensors see in the two cases.
Having done that, you can now—if necessary—adjust the graduated slider to set the cliff threshold to midway between these two readings. MiRo will now detect cliffs as accurately as possible, for the given floor surface and lighting conditions.
Either or both of the cliff-sensor driven operations can be disabled using the flags "Disable cliff reflex" and "Disable shun cliffs". When the demo is not running, the cliff sensor threshold set here is still used by the embedded software to run the cliff reflex, and the "Disable cliff reflex" flag of the demo does not have any effect. If you need to disable the cliff reflex in normal use, send PLATFORM_D_FLAG_DISABLE_CLIFF_REFLEX to the control/flags ROS topic (see client_test).
Cliff sensors can be fooled by varying lighting conditions and/or presence of unrelated objects and by backwards motion; users should not assume they will be sufficient to prevent the robot driving off edges.
Behavioural probability
"Behavioural probability" can be adjusted between 0 and 100% and controls two things. First, for each action MiRo selects (such as "orient" or "approach"), a dice is rolled, and the action is executed with the specified probability (otherwise, no action is taken). Second, every few seconds (by default, ten), a dice is rolled, and MiRo is responsive to user interaction (touch) for that period with the specified probability. Together, these effects control the degree to which MiRo is responsive to interactions with the user. This setting is used to probe the impact of this responsiveness on user-robot relationships.