This is an extension for Foxglove Studio that adds functionality for working with joysticks. It receives joystick data from a variety of inputs, and offers various ways to display it.
There are four main operating modes/input sources/use cases:
| Mode | Functionality | Intended use case |
|---|---|---|
| Subscribe Mode | Subscribes to an existing ROS Joy topic |
Monitoring a robot that is being teleoperated, or replaying a log and reviewing operator actions |
| Gamepad Mode | Receives input from a locally-connected gamepad (and publishes it to a ROS Joy topic) |
Live control of a robot using a gamepad connected to any Foxglove-supported device |
| Keyboard Mode | Converts local keystrokes into Joy messages (for publishing) |
Bench-testing a configuration that is primarily designed to use a gamepad but does not currently have one connected |
| Interactive Display Mode | Makes the displayed indicators clickable/touchable (for publishing) | Controlling a robot from a touchscreen device |
In the Foxglove Studio Desktop app, use the Extension Marketplace (Profile menu in top-right -> Extensions) to find and install the Joystick panel.
Download the latest .foxe release here and drag-and-drop it onto the window of Foxglove Studio (Desktop or Web).
With Node and Foxglove installed
npm installto install dependenciesnpm run local-installto build and install for a local copy of the Foxglove Studio Desktop Appnpm run packageto package it up into a.foxefile
Right now it seems that this panel will not work with the snap version of Foxglove Studio. Snaps do not allow joystick input by default and I am looking into what is required to use it (possibly the Foxglove team enabling the joystick interface).
Please follow this guide.
Right now all "mapping" within the program is direct, but it is intended that there will be flexibility here. This is because different controllers (and in some cases the same controller on different platforms) will have the buttons/axes arranged in a different order.
Some more complex examples of this are D-Pads (sometimes register as two axes, sometimes four buttons) and triggers (sometimes register as axes + buttons, sometimes buttons with a variable value, unsupported by Joy).
Thus it is expected to eventually need the following:
| Mapping | Purpose | Current implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Gamepad (numerical) -> Joy (or Keyboard -> Joy) | Defines how key pressed are mapped to Joy values (e.g. gamepad button 3 maps to joy button 4). |
Direct mapping |
| Joy -> Gamepad/Layout (named) | Defines how Joy values map into the Layout (e.g. joy button 4 maps to layout button "L1"). |
Built into layout JSON (separate in future) |
Also note that the HTML gamepad API seems to have the axes reversed compared to what typically comes out of the joy drivers, so the panel flips those values back automatically.
Currently consist of a .json to determine button locations and an entry in GamepadBackground.tsx for the background. Intention is for this to be more configurable in future.
- Source modes
- Source Mode 1 (Subscriber)
- Source Mode 2 (Gamepad)
- Option for a custom mapping from gamepad to
Joy(e.g. GP 6-> Joy 8) - Deadzones, inversion, scaling, etc.
- Option for a custom mapping from gamepad to
- Source Mode 3 (Keyboard)
- Source Mode 4 (Interactive)
- Display modes
- Simple Auto-Generated Display
- Better identification of axes
- Gamepad visual mimic
- Different options for the image
- Different options for mapping joy buttons to image buttons
- Options for axes to be sticks, d-pads, triggers, or more
- General improved customisability
- Simple Auto-Generated Display
Thanks to rgov for creating this repo which I originally worked on this project from before rewriting it mostly from scratch (but have retained useGamepads.ts).