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Panther - quick start

Panther is an autonomous, mobile robot (AMR) platform dedicated for an outdoor environment. Compliant with IP54 or IP66 rate of protection. Depending on the use case it can be equipped with a robot arm, LIDAR, RGB-D camera, GPS, UWB, and other additional equipment. It can be used in various areas of application such as agriculture, rescue, inspection, and many more.

Unboxing​

Package content​

The standard package contains:

  • Panther robot
  • Accessories box with:
    • charger
    • Logitech f710 gamepad
    • RUTX11 accessories
note

The content of the package may vary depending on additional elements bought alongside Panther.

Unboxing robot​

The Panther robot is shipped by default in a wooden box as one shown below. Unboxing the robot is very quick and simple and can be done in a few simple steps. Follow the instructions below when you receive your robot.

First, unlock and open the box's front side.

Check if it is possible to drive the robot out of the box (it may require removing some elements first, like the accessories box). If so, you can skip this step. Otherwise, it is necessary to partially disassemble the box. Unscrew the screws holding the box's upper part to its bottom as shown below. Then, carefully remove the box's upper part.

Cut white stripes holding the robot and remove additional kits such as accessories box etc. Now, you can pull the robot out of the box using its bumper.

caution

If you have not removed the box's upper part pay attention when pulling out the robot. If at any point, you feel like any of the elements may get damaged go back to step with the box disassemble.

Quick demo​

warning

Before the first use​

We know that you would really like to read the Quick demo section now, but your safety is the most important thing.

A brief safety information​

  1. Please read the Safety instructions first.
  2. If you are not sure how something works, please read the Panther manual.
  3. Please remember that the Emergency buttons are available on the robot (a mechanical one) and in the WebUI (on the screen) but in some cases, you may not be able to use them quickly enough to stop the robot before causing damage.
  4. The detailed description of the safety features is available in the Safety section.

Here is a very basic demo allowing you to use your Panther for the first time without coding:

Rotate the two-position Main Switch to the ON position. Push the Power Button for 1 second, red light on the button and the LED panels on the bumpers will light up. Wait for Wi-Fi to come up:

info

SSID: Panther_<serial_number>

PASS: husarion

Connect to Wi-Fi and open WebUI ROS joystick available in your browser at 10.15.20.2:8000. It allows you to manually control your robot and manage the emergency stop.

When the robot is booted correctly you should see red lights flashing. Now you can unlock the Emergency Button and reset E-STOP using WebUI. LED panels should start flashing green.

caution

Use the WebUI ROS joystick carefully as Panther is quite a heavy robot with powerful motors. Especially during a first run, be prepared to push the Emergency Button rapidly if needed.

Remote access​

OPTION 1: in a local network​

Use SSH connection at your PC that is connected to the hotspot provided by Panther:

user@mylaptop:~$
ssh husarion@10.15.20.2

The default password for user husarion is also husarion.

OPTION 2: over the Internet (VPN)​

You can access your Panther over the Internet, from any place in the world. You can use the preinstalled Husarnet VPN service (husarnet.com) To access your robot follow these steps:

Husarnet account

Create an account at https://app.husarnet.com/ and click the [Create network] button. Go to the newly created Husarnet network and click the [Add element] button. Go to a [join code] tab and copy your join code, it should look like this:

fc94:b01d:1803:8dd8:b293:5c7d:7639:932a/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Connect to the Internet

To connect Panther to your Wi-Fi network please follow the steps described here: Connecting Panther to your Wi-Fi network

Joining a Husarnet network

To join Panther in your Husarnet network execute:

husarion@panther:~$
husarnet join fc94:b01d:1803:8dd8:b293:5c7d:7639:932a/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx myPanther

After 20 - 60 seconds you should be able to see your panther available at https://app.husarnet.com/. You can ping it:

user@mylaptop:~$
ping6 myPanther

or SSH to it:

user@mylaptop:~$
$ ssh husarion@myPanther
note

Remember to connect also your PC to the same Husarnet network as Panther (https://docs.husarnet.com/docs/begin-linux).

Connecting Panther to your Wi-Fi network​

Connect to Panther using SSH:

user@mylaptop:~$
ssh husarion@10.15.20.2

To connect to 2.4GHz WiFi network edit file ~/panther_rutx11/config.json

husarion@panther:~$
sudo nano panther_rutx11/config.json

Edit section named wifi_client filling in your SSID and matching password.

Save by pressing Ctrl+O and exit by Ctrl+X. To apply new settings execute the python script by command:

husarion@panther:~$
panther_rutx11/setup.py

When Panther connects to our network message Success will be shown.

note

Wi-Fi must be in the range of Panther. For more information head to Network Section

Panther ROS packages​

At this stage, you should have your Panther up and running, with a remote (LAN or VPN) connection from your laptop. By default, Panther comes with preinstalled ROS packages (available in Docker containers) and automatically starts them on boot. For more information on Panther's ROS system refer to Software guide.

ROS nodes from the containers are available on the level of the host operating system.

Check available ROS topics:

husarion@panther:~$
rostopic list
note

You can run Panther's ROS packages natively on your Panther's host OS, by removing docker containers, cloning, and building panther_ros repo, however, the advised way is using Docker images for that.

Updating basic Docker images for Panther​

Panther ROS packages are frequently updated to improve Panther performance or include new features. To update them to the newest version access your Panther's terminal and run:

husarion@panther:~$
docker compose pull

Running updated Panther Docker image​

To restart updated Panther nodes, run the following commands in the Panther's terminal:

husarion@panther:~$
docker compose down
docker container prune # accept with 'y' and confirm with enter
docker compose up -d

Reference projects​

COMING SOON