AD-R1M Quick Start Guide

This guide will help you power on, connect to, and operate the AD-R1M robot for the first time.

Important

First-Time Setup Required?

If your SD card is not pre-flashed or you need to configure the robot for the first time, complete these steps first:

See the software-guide for complete installation instructions.

Power On

Robot side panel

Robot Control Panel

  1. Press the gray latching button to engage the battery cut-off relay

  2. Press and hold the gray momentary button (~1s) to start the robot electronics

  3. Wait for the LED ring to turn solid green (~60 seconds)

LED Status Codes

Time

Pattern

Meaning

~5s

▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄

Linux boot started

~45s

▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄

Bringup script starting

~60s

Solid green

System ready

Note

On boot, the robot automatically starts the motors, sensors, and RC teleop nodes. Once the LED turns solid green, you can immediately control the robot using the RC handset.

Remote Control (RC)

RC Interface

Radio controller showing buttons, switches, and joysticks

Step 1: Verify Connection

Press [RTN] to return to the home screen. Look for the wireless “bars” icon indicating connection.

RC Connection Status

Radio connection status: disconnected (left) vs connected (right)

Step 2: Check Telemetry

Press [TELE] to view the telemetry screen. RxBt should display the battery voltage (e.g., “12.3V”).

Warning

Do not let battery voltage drop below 9V during operation.

Step 3: Arm the Robot

Move the arm switch (SA) to the “ARMED” (down) position. The robot should shake slightly to confirm.

Killswitch Position

Arm switch positions: OFF (up) = safe, ARMED (down) = active

Step 4: Drive

Use the right control gimbal:

  • Forward/Back: Stick up/down

  • Turn: Stick left/right

  • Stop: Release to center

For initial RC setup and binding the receiver, see First Boot Configuration.

For RC troubleshooting, see Remote Control Issues.

Connect via SSH

For advanced usage, debugging, or running different operational modes, connect to the robot via SSH.

  1. SSH into the robot:

    ssh analog@ad-r1m-0.local

    • Hostname: Replace ad-r1m-0 with your robot’s hostname

    • Credentials: analog / analog

  2. View running services (optional):

    docker compose ps

Alternative Bringup Scripts

The default boot configuration starts radio teleop mode. To use different modes, stop the current stack and start a different one:

# Stop current services
docker compose down

# Start a different mode
./bringup_mapping.sh

Script

Control Mode

Description

./bringup_radio.sh

Radio

Manual teleoperation with RC handset (default)

./bringup_keyboard.sh + ./teleop.sh

Keyboard

Development/testing without radio

./bringup_mapping.sh

Radio + SLAM

Create maps of new environments

./bringup_amcl.sh

Radio + Nav2

Autonomous navigation in mapped environment

./bringup_blind.sh

Radio + Nav2

Autonomous navigation without pre-existing map

For detailed bringup configuration options, see software-guide.

Keyboard Control

For development without the RC handset:

  1. Start core services: ./bringup_keyboard.sh

  2. In a new terminal: ./teleop.sh

  3. Press p to arm, then use keyboard to drive

Controls:  u i o     q/z: speed ±10%
           j k l     p: arm | r: disarm
           m , .     CTRL-C: quit

Visualize with RViz

View robot data from your host PC. For complete setup instructions including ROS 2 installation, see software-guide/ros2-getting-started.

Quick Start (if ROS 2 and Zenoh RMW are already installed):

cd platform/common/scripts
./start_rviz.sh 0
RViz Visualization

RViz visualization of AD-R1M robot

Next Steps

Now that your robot is operational, explore these capabilities:

../_images/do_mapping.gif

Mapping - Create maps of your environment
../_images/navigate.gif

Navigation - Autonomous navigation to goals