Starting up

Please follow these instructions when switching on Pepper. This page describes how to physically start the robot and what software needs to be launched. Moreover, it provides checklists to ensure a successful startup.

Before Checklist

Ensure that

  • Robot is sufficiently charged.

  • The charging device is disconnected.

Hardware

  1. Press the robot’s power button at its chest (below the tablet).

    Touchscreen displays SoftBank logo, head LEDs change colours.

  2. Wait for booting to complete.

    Touchscreen displays colourful pattern. Bootup sound plays.

    Note

    Depending on the configuration (off by default), the robot also wakes up and calibrates.

Software

Note

The robot can be started with Autonomous life either enabled or disabled. For not conflicting with studies and demonstrations, we disable it by default.

The robot’s essential components (i.e., basic bringup, perception) are automatically started with the robot. The robot instance (called NaoQI) can be accessed using the API, or Choregraphe. Autonomous life can also be re-enabled using these methods as well the robot’s web interface (by entering its IP address or host name into a browser).

Study/demo computer

You can use any computer that is connected to the house’s network and correctly configured to communicate with the robot’s NaoQI instance. In most cases though, you would probably prefer to use one of the workstations inside Robot House (see Network overview), typically char in the living room, shakuras in the office, or tarsonis in the bedroom. All of them should be configured correctly and have the necessary software installed, including Choregraphe and the SDK which provides the API.

Note

Please contact the key team members if you need to request access to the robot from your personal account.

  1. Setup your terminal’s Robot environment to Pepper (and common robot house infrastructure) and set a ROS IP:

    $ robot_env common pepper
$ ros_ip

    Note

    Make sure to configure each terminal in which you plan to run software that communicates with the robot.

  2. If you need to use Choregraphe:

    1. Start the application:

      $ choregraphe-bin

    2. Connect to the robot:

    1. Select Connection -> Connect to….

    2. Check Use fixed IP/hostname.

    3. Enter the robot’s host name or IP address (see above).

    4. Click Select.

    The robot view on the right briefly initialises and soon after resembles the real robot.

  3. Start any additional components that you are using for behavior generation.