Baxter Basics

Turning on

Turn Baxter on by going behind it and hitting the large white power button once. Do not hold the button, very bad things may happen.

Connecting

On the computer, connect to Baxter by opening the terminal and typing the following (note: you probably know this, but you don't type the $):

$ cd ~/ros_ws
$ . baxter.sh

This changes the working directory to our ROS work space and runs a Baxter startup script. You will do this every time you connect to Baxter or want to run some program / script made for Baxter. Once connected you can move out of the ros_ws folder to wherever the program you want to run is, and you will maintain connection with Baxter in that terminal window.

Enabling motors

To turn on Baxter's motors via the terminal, type this while in the ~/ros_ws directory:

$ rosrun baxter_tools enable_robot.py -e

While activated, you can grab the cuff of Baxter's wrists to re-position them and they will stay in place where you leave them. Any program that is will made will enable the motors itself, so don't worry about doing this much. However, it is helpful to run when you want to move Baxter around like a puppet and visualize configurations.

Shut down

Shut Baxter down by pressing the power button once, it will then take a minute or so to shut down. Do not hold the button, very bad things may happen.

###Q&A

1. Can't run baxter.sh because permission denied?
   Make sure you typed ". baxter.sh", NOT "./baxter.sh".