Axioma Teleop GUI

A modular teleoperation GUI for ROS 2 robots. Publishes geometry_msgs/Twist on any configurable topic, so it works out of the box with differential-drive robots, TurtleSim, TurtleBot3, and any platform that subscribes to cmd_vel-style topics.

Control Modes

Mode 1 — Keyboard Buttons

A 3x3 directional grid that mimics the teleop_twist_keyboard layout. Press a button to move, release to stop. A speed slider controls the maximum velocity.

Mode 2 — Virtual Joystick

Drag the handle inside the circular pad to set linear and angular velocity at the same time. Distance from center controls speed. Release to stop. Numeric values are shown in real time.

Mode 3 — Sliders

Independent sliders for linear (-1.0 to 1.0 m/s) and angular (-3.0 to 3.0 rad/s) velocity, each with a spinbox for fine-tuning and an individual Reset button. A global STOP button zeros both axes instantly.

Installation

Prerequisites: ROS 2 Humble on Ubuntu 22.04, and PyQt5 (sudo apt install python3-pyqt5).

cd ~/your_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/MrDavidAlv/Axioma_teleop_gui.git
cd ~/your_ws
colcon build --packages-select axioma_teleop_gui
source install/setup.bash

Usage

ros2 run axioma_teleop_gui teleop_gui

The GUI starts with the topic set to cmd_vel. You can change the target topic at any time using the text field at the top of the window.

Quick test with TurtleSim

Open two terminals:

# Terminal 1 — launch turtlesim
ros2 run turtlesim turtlesim_node

# Terminal 2 — launch the GUI
ros2 run axioma_teleop_gui teleop_gui

In the GUI, change the topic to /turtle1/cmd_vel and click Set. Now you can drive the turtle with any of the three control modes.

Video Demos

Axioma Robot (Gazebo)	TurtleSim

Package Structure

axioma_teleop_gui/
├── package.xml
├── setup.py
├── setup.cfg
├── launch/
│   └── teleop_gui.launch.py
├── axioma_teleop_gui/
│   ├── main.py              # Entry point
│   ├── ros_node.py           # ROS 2 publisher node + threading
│   ├── main_window.py        # Main window layout and mode switching
│   └── widgets/
│       ├── keyboard_mode.py  # Mode 1
│       ├── joystick_mode.py  # Mode 2
│       └── slider_mode.py    # Mode 3
└── test/
    ├── test_copyright.py
    ├── test_flake8.py
    └── test_pep257.py

Architecture

Two threads keep the GUI responsive while maintaining a steady 15 Hz publish rate:

Main Thread (Qt)	Daemon Thread (ROS 2)
QApplication.exec_()	spin_once loop (50 ms timeout)
Widget events set velocity	Timer at 15 Hz publishes Twist
Writes protected by Lock	Reads protected by Lock

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE for details.

Author

Mario David Alvarez Vallejo — GitHub