Waypoint Robotics

Minimal API

Revised: November 2020

The following is a small subset of all available interfaces on Waypoint Robotics robots, sufficient for basic programmatic functionality such as retrieving the coordinates of existing waypoints, issuing navigation goals and checking their outcome and setting the state of Digital IO. Such basic functionality assumes that a map has already been created using the the robot's web graphical user interface, Dispatcher.

Some of the interfaces (topics, services or actions) listed below can only be used via ROSBridge and not directly through ROS, because they use custom message or service definitions. Such interfaces are marked with a * symbol. While examples on how to establish communication to ROSBridge using a basic websocket is provided in this repository, use of a established ROSbridge clients such as roslibjs, roslibpy or jrosbridge is encouraged.

/dispatcher/app_state

ROS Interface Type: Topic

Type: std_msgs/String

The current state of the robot/Dispatcher (Mapping, Navigation, etc). "nav_running" indicates the robot is fully ready to accept goals, "nav_uninitialized" means that the navigation has been started but the robot has not been localized (i.e., the initial position has not been provided).

/start_navigation , /stop_navigation

ROS Interface Type: Service

Type: Empty service

Start and Stop autonomous navigation mode.

/initialpose

ROS Interface Type: Topic

Type: PoseWithCovarianceStamped

Publish to this topic is used to set the robot’s initial position after starting navigation.

/waypoint_db/retrieve_waypoint

ROS Interface Type: Service

Type: Custom*

Returns the coordinates of the specified waypoint and whether the service call was successful.

Example Request:

waypointName: 'Loading Dock'

Example Response:

success: True
pose: 
  position: 
    x: -6.97752303775
    y: 5.95625468367
    z: 0.0
  orientation: 
    x: 0.0
    y: 0.0
    z: 0.0
    w: 1.0

/waypoint_move_base/goal , /waypoint_move_base/result

ROS Interface Type: Topic/Action

Interface Type: MoveBase Action

Issuing of navigation goals and obtaining the result upon completion

/waypoint_move_base/cancel

ROS Interface Type: Topic/Action

Interface Type: GoalID/MoveBase Action

Publish to this topic or use the ROS Action API to cancel an active navigation goal.

/robot_pose

ROS Interface Type: Topic

Interface Type: Pose

The coordinates of the robot's current location on the map (Navigation must be active).

/modbus_manager/set_digital_output

ROS Interface Type: Service

Type: Custom*

Sets existing digital IO High or Low.

Example Request:

"io_name: 'lights' value: false"

/waypoint/aux_battery_soc

ROS Interface Type: Topic

Type: std_msgs/Float32

The Battery State of Charge: (Read Only)

/waypoint/battery_is_charging

ROS Interface Type: Topic

Type: std_msgs/Bool

Whether the Battery is charging

/waypoint/embedded_response_active

ROS Interface Type: Topic

Type: std_msgs/Bool

Whether E-Stop is active (Read Only)

/waypoint/dtz_response_active

ROS Interface Type: Topic

Type: std_msgs/Bool

Whether DTZ is active (Read Only)

/mission_control/run_mission_from_file

ROS Interface Type: Service

Type: waypoint_ui/SingleWaypointOp* (this is a custom service type so it can only be used via ROSBridge)

Starts a mission previously created in Dispatcher

Example Request:

"request: 'run delivery route'"