Anki Cozmo on MacOS and Linux

Attention

If you are looking for how to set up Cozmo on Windows, you can find instructions here.

Pre-Setup

Install socketIO-client for python3

pi@raspberry:~$ python3 -m pip install socketIO-client configparser

Setup Instructions

  1. Set up the Cozmo SDK on your computer using their instructions.
  2. Edit controller.conf
    1. Enter your owner, robot_key, etc. from remo.tv
    2. Change [robot] type=none to type=cozmo
    3. Change [tts] type=none to type=cozmo_tts
    4. Change [ffmpeg] type=ffmpeg-arecord to type=cozmo_vid
    5. Save the file.

Install FFMPEG

FFMPEG should already be installed on Linux if you’ve followed the base installation instructions.

MacOS:

you@yourMac:~$ brew install ffmpeg

Starting Cozmo

  1. Using the Cozmo app, enter SDK mode and connect your mobile device to the host machine.

  2. Execute the Remo controller using:

    pi@raspberry:~$ cd ~/remotv
    pi@raspberry:~/remotv$ python3 controller.py
    
  3. For audio streaming, you need a second instance of the controller with a separate conf file with the following changes:

    [robot]
    type=none
    
    [camera]
    no_camera=true
    
    [tts]
    type=none
    
  4. All other changes remain the same. To execute, run:

    pi@raspberry:~$ cd /path/to/second/controller
    pi@raspberry:/path/to/second/controller$ python3 controller.py
    

Tip

If you don’t want to, or cannot run another terminal window, screen is a helpful tool for running commands concurrently.

Linux:

you@yourComputer:~$ sudo apt install screen

screen is already installed on MacOS.

To detach from a screen session, type ^A d. To reattach a detached screen, type screen -r.

Custom Controls

This controls JSON is designed to work out of the box with the existing Cozmo controls.

[
    { "label": "Left", "hot_key": "a", "command": "l" },
    { "label": "Right", "hot_key": "d", "command": "r" },
    { "label": "Forward", "hot_key": "w", "command": "f" },
    { "label": "Backward", "hot_key": "s", "command": "b" },
    { "label": "Look Up", "hot_key": "q", "command": "q" },
    { "label": "Look Down", "hot_key": "z", "command": "a" },
    { "label": "Lift Up", "hot_key": "e", "command": "w" },
    { "label": "Lift Down", "hot_key": "c", "command": "s" },
    { "label": "Light Toggle", "hot_key": "x", "command": "v" },
    { "label": "Drat", "hot_key": "0", "command": "0" },
    { "label": "Giggle", "hot_key": "1", "command": "1" },
    { "label": "Wow", "hot_key": "2", "command": "2" },
    { "label": "Tick Tock", "hot_key": "3", "command": "3" },
    { "label": "Ping Pong", "hot_key": "4", "command": "4" },
    { "label": "Meow", "hot_key": "5", "command": "5" },
    { "label": "WufWuf", "hot_key": "6", "command": "6" },
    { "label": "LookUp", "hot_key": "7", "command": "7" },
    { "label": "Excite", "hot_key": "8", "command": "8" },
    { "label": "BackUp", "hot_key": "9", "command": "9" },
    { "label": "Hello", "hot_key": "", "command": "sayhi" },
    { "label": "Watch This", "hot_key": "", "command": "saywatch" },
    { "label": "Love You", "hot_key": "", "command": "saylove" },
    { "label": "Bye", "hot_key": "", "command": "saybye" },
    { "label": "Happy", "hot_key": "", "command": "sayhappy" },
    { "label": "Sad", "hot_key": "", "command": "saysad" },
    { "label": "How Are You", "hot_key": "", "command": "sayhowru" },
    { "label": "Sing Song", "hot_key": "", "command": "singsong" },
    { "label": "Light Cubes", "hot_key": "", "command": "lightcubes" },
    { "label": "Dim Cubes", "hot_key": "", "command": "dimcubes" }
]

Cozmo Chat Commands

In addition to the standard chat commands, Cozmo has several specific chat commands available to the owner. You can type these into the chat box on the robot page.

  • .anim NAME This will play the NAME animation.
  • .forward_speed ### This will allow you ot adjust how fast Cozmo moves forward / backwards.
  • .turn_speed ### This will adjust how far Cozmo turns left and right.
  • .vol ### This turns Cozmo’s volume up or down [0…100].
  • .charge x If Cozmo is on the dock, force the charging state. If Cozmo is off the dock, mark the charging state to start as soon as Cozmo docks [on|off].
  • .stay x Set cozmo to stay locked on the dock, regardless of charge state [on|off].
  • .annotate Toggles the annotated view, to see what Cozmo is seeing.
  • .color or .colour Toggles color. Color reduces the resolution of the video.

Note

For audio streaming on MacOS:

NOTE: These instructions are out of date. The current method to stream audio involves changing the audio_input_format to avfoundation, video type to ffmpeg and no_camera to true.

The startAudioCaptureLinux function in send_video.py calls ffmpeg with alsa input. If you want to stream audio from your mac, use `` -f avfoundation -i “:0”`` in place of -f alsa -ar 44100 -ac %d 0i hw:%d.

For example:

audioCommandLine = '/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -f avfoundation -i ":0" -f mpegts -codec:a mp2 -b:a 128k -muxdelay 0.001 http://remo.tv:1567/transmit?name=%s-audio' % (channelID)