Work in progress: this documentation is still being written and reviewed. Check details against the source code.

Launch arguments

The main bringup starts the orchestrator and core task servers. Vision and pipettor servers are opt-in: both enable flags default to false. The orchestrator starts MoveIt when a goal needs it. Set BEAMBOT_BEAMLINE_CONFIG in the launch environment; the beamline selection is not a launch argument.

Argument

Default

Effect

enable_vision

false

Launch vision/sample servers and the Zivid camera

enable_pipettor

false

Enable pipettor server

use_mock_hardware

false

Use mock UR control; other devices remain separately configured.

enable_joystick

false

Enable gamepad control when MoveIt starts

enable_batching

true

Group consecutive compatible tasks into one MTC task.

enable_tracing

false

Enable ros2_tracing (LTTng). Writes CTF trace to ~/.ros/tracing/<trace_session_name>-/. Analyze with: ros2 run tracetools_analysis auto

trace_session_name

beambot

LTTng session name (timestamp is appended automatically)

orchestrator_log_level

info

Set the orchestrator logger severity: debug, info, warn, error, or fatal.

Effect of disabling a subsystem

  • enable_vision:=false suppresses the Zivid node, scan server, unified vision-task server, and sample server. It also removes the legacy non-vision pick/place endpoints hosted by the sample server.

  • enable_pipettor:=false suppresses the pipettor action server.

  • use_mock_hardware:=true selects mock UR control through the orchestrator’s MoveIt launch. It does not automatically disable cameras, pipettor operations, or every tool driver.

  • enable_tracing controls the trace action, but tracetools_launch is imported when the launch file loads. Disabling tracing does not remove that Python import requirement.

For an introductory mock session, use the explicit command in Run your first task and restrict the task to a tool-free MoveTo. Other MoveIt/UR launch files have their own arguments; see robot models.

Implementation: src/beambot/launch/beambot_bringup.launch.py.