dotbot run - host-side processes

dotbot run launches the things that run on your computer: the control plane, the gateway bridge, a simulator, calibration, demos, and teleop drivers. (fw / device / swarm are the things you manage; run is the long-lived processes that talk to them.)

dotbot run --help        # the full list

Subcommand	Launches
controller	Control plane: REST/WS API + web dashboard. The hub everything else talks to.
gateway	Host bridge: gateway firmware UART ↔ MQTT broker.
simulator	Standalone simulator (no hardware).
lh2-calibration	Lighthouse calibration: capture / apply, on one cabled board.
demo	Built-in research demos (qrkey phone bridge, …).
keyboard	Drive a DotBot from the keyboard.
joystick	Drive a DotBot from a joystick.

controller - the control plane + web UI

Connect to a swarm and serve the dashboard at http://localhost:8000/PyDotBot/. --conn is one discriminated string: mqtts://host:port, a serial path, or simulator.

dotbot run controller --conn mqtts://argus.paris.inria.fr:8883 --swarm-id 1234 -w
dotbot run controller --conn /dev/ttyACM0 -w

Flag	Meaning
-n/--conn	mqtts://host:port, serial path, or simulator
-s/--swarm-id	hex swarm id - required for MQTT, ignored for serial/simulator
-w/--webbrowser	open the dashboard automatically
--csv-data-output	record robot data to a CSV file

Full options and the dashboard tour live in the controller guide. See dotbot run controller --help.

gateway - UART ↔ MQTT bridge

Runs wherever the gateway firmware is plugged in. With --mqtt-url it bridges serial frames to the broker; without it, it just prints what it receives.

dotbot run gateway -m mqtts://argus.paris.inria.fr:8883 -p /dev/cu.usbmodem1234
dotbot run gateway                # autodetect port, print-only (no broker)

run gateway ≠ device flash-mari-gateway. This is the host process that bridges a gateway board to MQTT. device flash-mari-gateway is the firmware you flash onto that board, once. Same word, different objects.

simulator - standalone simulator

No hardware, no gateway. Exactly equivalent to run controller --conn simulator, so it shares the controller’s flags and serves the same dashboard.

dotbot run simulator -w

lh2-calibration - capture & apply

Lighthouse v2 calibration against a single serial-attached board. collect opens a TUI to capture LH2 counts; apply writes the saved calibration out as a C header.

dotbot run lh2-calibration collect
dotbot run lh2-calibration apply ./lh2_calibration.h

See the LH2 calibration guide. To push a calibration to the whole fleet over the air, use swarm calibrate-lh2.

demo - built-in demos

dotbot run demo --list      # what's available
dotbot run demo qr          # qrkey phone bridge

keyboard / joystick - teleop

Drive a DotBot live through a running controller (start one with run controller first). Both default to localhost:8000; pass -d to target a specific robot by hex address.

dotbot run keyboard
dotbot run joystick -j 0 -d 1234567890abcdef

See dotbot run keyboard --help / dotbot run joystick --help for the host, port, and application (dotbot/sailbot) flags.