MobileRobots Inc.
CAREFUL!
Put the Pioneer Arm into its
HOME
position
BEFORE
resetting the microcontroller.
Your Pioneer Arm may flop dangerously if it is not in its
HOME
position, and
consequently flail erratically to that position when its servos get powered. So be
very careful to have the Pioneer Arm in its
HOME
position before you turn on your
robot’s
Main Power
or reset the robot’s microcontroller!
The arm servers also monitor the serial connection with the arm’s controller. If the robot’s controller
does not detect the arm, or if it loses contact with the arm’s controller when the arm’s servos are
enabled, your robot’s controller automatically shuts down command and control, and awaits a warm-
reset command from the client to re-establish command and control of the Pioneer Arm through the
arm servers.
In the meantime, you should manually restore the Pioneer Arm to its
HOME
position.
For your client to recover command and control of the Pioneer Arm while remaining connected after
the communication failure, you must follow the warm-reset protocol:
1.
Request status (STAT) or CHECK and wait for restoration of communication (bit 1 of the status
byte)
2.
Issue the INIT command
3.
Use STAT and INFO SIP requests to reinitialize any client-side variables that my be tracking
joint positions
4.
Issue the POWER command to power the Arm servos
5.
Resume operation
Note that while the joint positions are reset to
HOME
; the latest joint speed settings persist.
ARIA and ArAKin Arm Support
15
The classes and methods for ARIA-based client operation of the Pioneer Arm and the companion
ArAKin and AKIN forward and inverse kinematics libraries are documented extensively in their
respective ARIA directories. ARIA is the preferred foundation software for client-server
