mofpy

What This Is

Mofpy is a ROS node that lets you to generically trigger actions from joypad inputs. For example, you can publish certain message like a geometry_msgs/Twist when pressing the R1 button. Normally, you need to write your own application that subscribes to the joy topic, check whether the index corresponding to the R1 button is high or low, and if low, publish the desired message. There are two problems to this:

The index you need to check is different depending on what joypad you're using.
The node you wrote can only be used for the specific case when you want to publish a geometry_msgs/Twist.

Mofpy attempts to solve these issues by allowing you to create virtual axes and buttons (by giving them names like R1, O, X) and mapping them to certain actions (such as publishing a twist, planning and executing to a move_group state, etc).

These are the benefits of using mofpy:

allows you to reuse the joypad configurations that you previously wrote
saves you from rewriting similar subscribe-to-joy-and-publish-something nodes
allows you to chain actions, making it possible to bind macro-style actions to joypad inputs

Supported Joypads

The following controllers are supported by default.

PS4 (Wired): ps4_wired.yaml
PS4 (Wireless): ps4_wireless.yaml
Elecom JC-U3412S: elecom_small.yaml
Elecom JC-U4113S: elecom_large.yaml (Coming soon)

Supported Actions

Publish 6DOF cmd_vel for manipulators
Publish 2DOF cmd_vel for ground vehicles
Publish any message of constant value
Plan and execute to a predefined move_group state
Sleep for a certain duration (useful for waiting between actions)

Examples

The following examples demonstrate what you can do with mofpy.

single_press: When pressing R1, publish the value 42 to the foo topic of type std_msgs/Float64.
multiple_press: When sequentially pressing R1, L1, R1, L1, publish the string Hello, World! to the hello topic.
long_press: When pressing R1 for 1 second, publish a geometry_msgs/PointStamped message to the fake_point topic with the given values. The header field is populated by filling in the current time for stamp and frame_id set to empty.
multiple_long_press: When pressing R1 and L1 simultaneously for 1 second, publish a geometry_msgs/Pose, then sleep for 3 seconds, and then publish a sensor_msgs/Imu message. The stamp field in this message will be substituted by the current time.

presets:
  single_press:
    # Single short press
    trigger: R1
    action:
      - type: publish
        topic:
          name: foo
          type: std_msgs/Float64
        values:
          data: 42
  multiple_press:
    # Sequential button press
    trigger: [R1, L1, R1, L1]
    action:
      - type: publish
        topic:
          name: hello
          type: std_msgs/String
        values:
          data: 'Hello, World!'
  long_press:
    # Long press for 1 second
    trigger: [R1, 1]
    action:
      - type: publish
        topic:
          name: fake_point
          type: geometry_msgs/PointStamped
        values:
          header: auto
          point:
            x: 1
            y: 2
            z: 3
  multiple_long_press:
    # Long press R1 and L1 simultaneously for 1 second
    trigger: [[R1, L1], 1]
    action:
      - type: publish
        topic:
          name: fake_pose
          type: geometry_msgs/Pose
        values:
          position:
            # Note: Use the default values for the other fields
            x: 2
          orientation:
            w: 1
      - type: sleep
        duration: 3
      - type: publish
        topic:
          name: fake_imu
          type: sensor_msgs/Imu
        values:
          header:
            stamp: now
            frame_id: imu
          orientation:
            w: 1
          linear_acceleration:
            z: 9.8

In multiple_long_press, pressing R1 and L1 simultaneously for 1 second will publish the value 42 to foo topic, immediately followed by another message published to the foo topic with the value 43.

License

MIT

Author

Naoki Mizuno (mizuno.naoki@rm.is.tohoku.ac.jp)

naoki-mizuno / mofpy