Software drop - February 28, 2025

Hey all,

Here’s a quick round-up of some of the new software that’s been released for Stretch these past few weeks.

New tutorial for developing on web interface

If you’re interested in learning how write frontend React components that can call into ROS2 APIs, I’ve written a new tutorial called Developing on the Web Interface. The web interface is sophisticated web app that enables user to call and teleoperate their Stretch robot over the internet. I hope this tutorial makes it easier to approach adding new features to or forking the Stretch Web Teleop codebase.

Fix for Dex Teleop’s fast mode

Dex Teleop’s “fast mode” enables the robot to move quicker while tracking your demonstations. A poorly tuned current limit on the lift joint caused stuttering/jerky motion from the robot. This makes collecting demonstrations quite difficult. The fix is now merged mainline, so simply git pull in the folder to get it.

Make it easier to install Stretch AI

Peiqi has made it easier to install Stretch AI and its Dynamem module in his fix here. This has been merged mainline, so simply follow the installation instructions to get started!

Fix for mapping with Nav2

Using the gamepad controller with Nav2 to create a map previously involved the teleop_twist node. The UX of the controller from this node was just okay. Recently, we’ve introduced an “gamepad” mode in Stretch ROS2, which has the same UX as stretch_gamepad_teleop.py (the same gamepad teleop from the Getting Started tutorial). In this fix, we switch Nav2 to use “gamepad” mode. Update your ROS workspace to get it!

Make it easier to start/stop web teleop

The web interface is launched through scripts called launch_interface.sh and stop_interface.sh. Internally, they use screen to manage the backend. While this provides reliability, it makes it harder to debug issues because the logs are not saved. Improvements to these scripts have merged in this PR and instructions on collecting debug logs is now available in the troubleshooting section here.

Two fixes for Stretch’s Python library

Two small fixes for Stretch Body. See each PR for details:

Get the fixes by updating your Python libraries.

Many small fixes for Stretch’s ROS2 packages

See each PR for details:

Get the fixes by updating your ROS workspace.

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