RemoteDrive

Enables remote Driver-Controlled TeleOp over the internet for FIRST Tech Challenge teams.

Check out our youtube teaser:

About RemoteDrive

The COVID-19 pandemic left FIRST Tech Challenge competitions in a weird place: due to local restriction, teams might not be able to all meet up and work and control the robot. There are many teams who mainly use online application like Google Meet, Discord or Zoom, but getting the robot to be able to be controlled remotely is tricky. This project's purpose is to make this remote control feature available and easily accessible to any FTC team.

Our measurements indicate that the worst case latency of this project is about 50ms, but normally it performs much better.

Installation, Setup, and Usage

Part 1: Replace all LinearOpMode inheritances with RemoteDrive inheritances.

1. Simply download RemoteDrive.java, and copy it into your TeamCode folder
2. Change your TeleOp program(s) to extend the RemoteDrive class
3. In your runOpMode method you should call super._init() in the beginning of the method, super.after_start() after the LinearOpMode has started and super._end() before the LinearOpMode ends;
4. Using your Driver Station phone, navigate to the "Program and Manage" menu, and find the local IP address of the Control Hub or Robot Controller phone
5. On line 174 in RemoteDrive.java, replace the existing IP address with the IP address you found in Step 4
6. Optional: change the local port in RemoteDrive.java at line 174 (default is 6969). You should also change this in environmental_variables.py Checkout test_001.java to see exacly how this is done

Part 2: Setup the Host Computer (a computer that's in the same physical location as the robot)

1. On the Host Computer, you should install the following software:

• Zerotier(https://www.zerotier.com/download/)

• Python3(https://www.python.org/downloads/) - make sure to add it to PATH

• Pip3(https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/) - make sure to add it to PATH

• The following pip3 modules: socket, threading, os, sys, time(these should be installed by default with python so dont worry if you get errors when you are trying to install them) and pygame(this might ship with the python installer but it also might not) 2. Plug in a USB WiFi adapter/Ethernet Cable to the Host Computer 3. Connect the one Wifi to the Control Hub or Robot Controller, and ensure that the other internet connection is connected to your local router 4. Here you have two options for making this computer discoverable by the drivers:

  Method 1: Port Forwarding

  You should choose a port on which you want the server on the host computer to run. You must forward this port to the router so it becomes accessible over the internet. After that, you should Edit environmental_variables.py accordingly.(More exactly you should modify the ROBOT_ADDRESS(the ip used in RemoteDrive.java),ROBOT_PORT(the port used in RemoteDrive.java),HOST_ADDRESS(the public ip of the host),HOST_PORT(the forwarded port) and DRIVER_ADDRESSES(the public ip of the drivers)).

  Method 2: Zerotier

  You should log into zerotier and create a network. After that you should connect to that network with the host and drivers computers. After that, you should Edit environmental_variables.py accordingly.(More exactly you should modify the ROBOT_ADDRESS(the ip used in RemoteDrive.java),ROBOT_PORT(the port used in RemoteDrive.java),HOST_ADDRESS(the zerotier ip of the host),HOST_PORT(the port used to run the server) and DRIVER_ADDRESSES(the public ip of the drivers)). 5. You should remain connected to the internet and also connect to the Robot via wifi direct(to remain connected to the internet, you can either stay connected through an ethernet cable or through an usb wifi adapter). 6. Open a terminal/command prompt window and type python3 Server.py

  Now, your host is ready to recieve commands from the Driver Computers(s).

  Part 3: Setup the Driver Computer (a computer that is used to remotely control the robot)

1. On the Driver Computer, you should install the following software:
   • Zerotier(https://www.zerotier.com/download/)
   • Python3(https://www.python.org/downloads/)
   • Pip3(https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/)
   • The following pip3 modules: socket, threading, os, sys, time(these should be installed by default with python so dont worry if you get errors when you are trying to install them) and pygame(this might ship with the python installer but it also might not)
2. Plug in a USB gamepad .
3. Open a terminal/command prompt window in the current directory. type "python3 Config.py". This should configure your local variant of this project to work correctly with your gamepad. - this can be done as many times as you like, but it is necessary to do it only once before the first use of this project.(depending on the OS you are using, guide might not get registered properly. If that's the case, feel free to press any other button you want if you dont plan on using the guide button to control your robot)
4. Edit environmental_varialbles.py accordingly(More exactly you should modify the HOST_ADDRESS(the public ip / zerotier ip) and HOST_PORT(the port used by the host to run the server)
5. In the same terminal/ command prompt window, type python3 Client.py. Your driver computer should now succesfully send commands to the server computer(you can verify this by seeing some messages on the server terminal).

Part 4: Java integration

1. Import the RemoteDrive.java file to your project
2. Now, for any LinearOpMode you have written and want to make it work remotely, just replace the class it inherits from(from LinearOpMode to RemoteDrive).
3. after runOpMode() type super._init(); after waitForStart() type super.after_start(); after waitForStart() type super.after_start(); finally, type super_end(); at the end of runOpMode

Common Errors

Port ____ is currently in use on your machine. Please try a different port.

This is most likely the only error you would encounter. In this case, you must change the the Host Port to another integer number as the Host computer is already using that port for another function. Make sure you change the port on both the driver side and the host side in environmental_variables.py

Something else is wrong

Contributors

Developers

Râpeanu George-Alexandru

Lazăr Mihai-Ilie

Testers

Moldovan Daniel-Gelu

Disclaimer:

The camera feed is handled through Google Meet, Discord or Zoom or whichever service you choose to use. Our software does not connect to camera, it only sends the gamepad control commands over the internet.

Also, this solution has been tested mainly on linux, so we cannot guarantee that the software will work as expected on other OS's, even though it should.

© Architechs FTC Team RO028 | All Rights Reserved 2021