This package contains a minimal user interface for operating the ANYmal robot. It builds upon and configures the core Director UI to be specific to ANYmal e.g. giving commands to the robot and drawing sensor signals from the robot.
View demo video with ANYmal simulator:
Director is a flexible, configurable robot user interface which is configured using Python. Development can be done without needing to recompile, which enables rapid integration. It is organised as follows:
Please refer to the main Director instructions about dependencies and features. This software targets Ubuntu 18.04 and ROS Melodic.
To clone this module and its dependencies into a ROS workspace:
mkdir -p anymal_director_ws/src
cd anymal_director_ws
catkin init
catkin config --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cd src
git clone git@github.com:ori-drs/director_anymal_b_simple.git
source director_anymal_b_simple/scripts/clone_deps.sh
cd ..
If you have a workspace, you can skip several of the steps above.
To build the software:
source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash
catkin build
source devel/setup.bash
This should take about 90 seconds to compile.
Currently this environment variable is also needed:
export DRC_BASE=$PWD/src/director_anymal_b_simple
Launch a Gazebo simulator and the Director:
roslaunch anymal_b_navigation_sim sim.launch
roslaunch director_anymal_b_simple anymal_sim.launch
The usual ANYbotics ANYmal simulator will start. The robot will also be drawn in Director, as well as LIDAR and depth camera sensor data. See the video mentioned above.
In this basic version, you can only command the robot to 'square up', lie down and stand up. There are quick key bindings to change view e.g. 'r' reset. 't' topview.
The python code for these actions is located in anymaldriverpanel.py. Start there for further development.
A more complete interface is available on request from Oxford Dynamic Robot Systems Group. It includes all the UI components which are disabled in the version provided here and works in simulation and on the real robot. In addition to the core Director capabilites (see its readme), features specific to ANYmal Director include:
- An intuitive teleop interface with point-to-point pose control while trotting or walking
- An interactive Python interface to the ANYmal API
- Task execution and scheduling for autonomous missions
To make the full use of this software requires joining the ANYmal Research Community.
ANYbotics provide excellent control software, software releases and support for ANYmal within the ANYmal Research Community.


