Project ATLAS - Autonomous Service Rover

Ultrasonic validity increment — installed; stationary follow-up open (2026-09-20)

The installed UNO firmware adds atomic sample sequence/age reports; bridge, mux and the read-only capability view consume /ultrasonic/validity. Legacy ONLINE, no echo, stale/default ranges cannot grant directional safety validity. Existing LiDAR, manual remote, B-stop/reset, encoder exclusion and autonomy locks remain. Firmware upload and the paired Jetson deployment succeeded after the operator entered the bootloader. A subsequent operator power cycle verified autostart and fresh front/rear ultrasound, BME680, AMG8833, PCA9685 and decoded radar telemetry. Manual-only, latched stop, zero velocity and M4 exclusion remain unchanged.

Stationary observation exposed intermittent serial-backlog rejection. After renewed motor/servo-power-OFF confirmation, two narrow bridge corrections were installed: distinguish a partial next line from complete backlog, and drain newly arrived bytes within the existing bounded processing cycle. Jetson staging passes 112/112 offline checks. No further firmware flash or safety-limit change was needed. Physical sensor/stopping qualification remains pending; fresh telemetry is not autonomous permission. See live results, limitations and remaining tests.

Final passive 120-second window: 421 valid front/rear reports, 3 fail-closed backlog events, zero parse errors/reconnects. This is improved communication, not fault-free certification. No motor/servo movement test was run.

Follow-up stationary check: a software communication pause correctly expired front/rear readings and the commissioning view marked them stale; data returned after resume. The earlier 50 cm reference was a communication misunderstanding, not verified ground truth. The operator subsequently confirmed the observed ultrasonic clearances of approximately 1.35 m front / 0.24 m rear as plausible. A simultaneous 20-second comparison measured LiDAR clearance near 2.45 m front / 0.31 m rear after applying the existing footprint. Different origins, heights and beam geometry prevent treating those values as interchangeable.

A further 120.15-second passive run produced 418 valid front/rear reports, 6 fail-closed backlog events and zero parse errors. Ultrasound remains a secondary close-range source; LiDAR remains primary. Controlled stopping is the remaining ultrasonic safety test. The front sensor has now passed stationary close-range screening: all 15 fresh samples at an operator-set 30–35 cm target measured 31.7–33.2 cm (median 32.8 cm). It is qualified only for the intended secondary close-range role; the variable long-range response is advisory. No scale factor or safety limit was changed.

The rear sensor also passes the intended secondary close-obstacle role, with an accuracy limitation. At an operator-confirmed 30–35 cm target, the first window measured 28.6–30.7 cm (median 30.6 cm) and the repeated window measured 27.2–28.2 cm (median 28.1 cm). The conservative short bias can trigger warning earlier. After target repositioning, a confirmation window placed all 15 samples inside 30–35 cm, measuring 30.1–31.1 cm (median 31.1 cm). Rear close-obstacle detection passes; this is still not full-range precision. LiDAR remains authoritative.

Physical rear disconnect/reconnect now passes fail-closed behavior. Disconnect changed rear from valid 31.6 cm to fresh NO_ECHO with no retained range while front stayed valid and motion remained zero. Reconnect created a new sensor-stream identity and automatically restored fresh rear readings. A subsequent 30.14-second direct ROS check recorded 102 valid front/rear reports, one fail-closed backlog report and zero parse errors; rear remained 31.0–33.7 cm. One dashboard request timed out during recovery, but the direct sensor stream was healthy.

The isolated directional-veto suite also passes 38/38 on Windows and Jetson staging. Close, missing, stale and no-echo directional data block the applicable autonomous command. This is logic validation only; the physical stopping-distance test remains blocked by the existing encoder/autonomy ground-validation gate.

Capability-aware fallback — read-only first increment, 2026-09-20

Open /commissioning → Sensor authority & fallback readiness for configured sensor roles, live cached data age, evidence status and blocked capabilities. This reuses the existing cache/ledger: no new driver, fusion or control path. Camera VO is NOT AVAILABLE; IM10A remains unfused; M4 feedback remains excluded. No alternate profile or automatic goal resumption is approved. See the ordered remaining-work list, audit and safety boundary.

Phase 2: evidence and next-step commissioning — 2026-09-20

On /commissioning, use CONTINUE ATLAS COMMISSIONING to open the next unresolved gate. It never starts motion. The same SQLite database now retains scoped test evidence, explains retests after relevant changes, and preserves valid results across restart. Old telemetry checks do not become physical PASS. Steering has explicit RECORD VERIFIED FRONT/REAR SAVED RANGE controls after the operator physically verifies and saves through the existing motor owner. No navigation, encoder-selection, camera-home or IMU-fusion setting is changed. This is the first bounded Phase 2 increment, not completion of all physical or fallback work. See audit, remaining gates and validation.

Camera startup home selected by user on 2026-09-20: pan 1725 µs, tilt 1500 µs. UNO reconnect/startup, web Home, tracker and mission defaults match.

Commissioning Camera page now includes manual left/right/up/down one-tap controls, 25/50/100 µs steps and return to configured home. It reuses the existing camera owner, stale-controller gate and pulse bounds; it does not set a new boot home.

Steering Master Reset discards unsaved marks only: it preserves saved calibration, target positions and traction inhibition. The diagram uses live owner-saved centres; it cannot measure hand-moved wheel positions. PWM servo torque release is not verified and no UART torque-off command is used.

Steering diagram correction (2026-09-20): top-view wheel rotation now uses counterclockwise SVG rotation for increasing/left servo commands. This is a display-only correction, not a change to motor direction or physical feedback.

Manual steering commissioning — deployed 2026-09-20

Front-left calibration travel is now bounded at 126° (previously 121°). The normal operating endpoint remains unchanged until the operator marks and saves a verified limit. Rear and right-side bounds are unchanged.

The commissioning Steering page now has independent front/rear 1°/5° command jogs, mark centre/left/right, explicit permanent save, and exit to saved centres. It requires the new motor owner online, a fresh latched drive stop and operator confirmation that wheels are lifted. Browser loss freezes adjustments after 1.5 seconds and keeps traction inhibited. Re-enter then explicitly exit; the page never resets the drive stop. Existing endpoint envelopes cannot be expanded here. Servo command degrees are not physical tyre-angle feedback. Calibration lives in project_atlas/config/steering_calibration.json and is loaded by the motor owner at startup. Do not edit it while the owner is running. Web controls and motor owner deployed after lifted-wheel confirmation. Live enter/timeout/re-enter/exit verified with centres unchanged and stop latched. Physical jog directions/ranges and operator calibration remain to be checked.

Commissioning console — 2026-09-20 (first increment)

Open /commissioning on the existing dashboard server, or use its COMMISSIONING / HARDWARE CHECK link. Live subsystem pages distinguish commanded, reported and calculated values. Non-motion hardware checks and bounded IMU/GNSS/distance observations have persistent result history. Actuator commissioning and calibration writes remain locked: an exclusive owner-side control lease and physical verification are still required. See plan and validation report.

Front ultrasonic — 2026-09-19

UNO R4 front TRIG D2 / ECHO D3 is enabled by the sensor-hub front-ultrasonic.conf drop-in and reapplied after USB reconnect. This enables telemetry only; navigation qualification and safety policy are unchanged.

Steering neutral — 2026-09-18

User-requested servo neutral is now front 90°, rear 90° (previously 91°/89°). Existing endpoint limits are unchanged. Commanded neutral is not proof of physical wheel alignment; straight-ground driving needs revalidation.

On-demand local companion — 2026-09-18

Added a stopped-only, read-only local conversation backend with automatic model unloading and explicit resource limits. Existing deterministic telemetry replies, remote emergency stop, navigation gates and cloud fallback are preserved. The local model has no action tools or motor-command path. Voice recognition still needs internet; this is not a fully offline voice assistant. See installation, current deployment evidence and limitations.

Audit-driven reliability repairs — 2026-09-17

The recovery monitor now parses complete encoder-health JSON instead of treating truncated messages as faults. Motor-link recovery additionally requires fresh, sustained zero commands and a fresh latched stop. A fresh, explicitly degraded three-encoder report is not a serial failure or permission for autonomous driving. The agent role board now distinguishes communication from autonomous readiness.

“Hey ATLAS” alone now gets a cached local English/Hindi acknowledgement after recognition. Cloud speech recognition is still required; that September 17 repair did not install a local LLM or offline wake-word recognizer. Empty/ignored recordings clear the transcription stage, and microphone privacy is rechecked before playback.

Visual Cloud now receives retained maps/static-TF after late startup and labels these snapshots CACHED, not live traffic. Its map overlay remains a preview: map/odom/scan frame alignment and a complete buffered TF tree are still pending. No navigation tuning, wheel motion, IMU fusion or encoder qualification changed. See deployment evidence, limits and local-LLM decision.

Three-encoder commissioning — 2026-09-17

M1 rear-left, M2 rear-right and M3 front-left are selected for odometry in project_atlas/config/encoder_selection.yaml. Faulty M4 front-right feedback is excluded even if it reports counts again; its motor still operates. Three healthy encoders can support autonomous navigation. Four are not a Nav2 requirement, but this changed configuration needs measured distance, turn and stopping validation before navigation_validated may be enabled. Existing manual-only restrictions and remote stop remain in place. IM10A live EKF fusion has not been enabled by this change.

Fresh packet age is checked separately from unchanged counts at rest. M4 raw counts remain diagnostic and are labelled excluded in the dashboard. A fault in another selected channel or loss of shared feedback blocks autonomy. Odometry uses per-wheel increments, avoiding cumulative-position jumps when channels are rejected/reintroduced; rejected intervals do not catch up later. Steering-based yaw and existing encoder scales remain provisional after motor replacement. See commissioning status.

Intercom audio and camera USB recovery — 2026-09-17

Intercom playback now sends only valid PCM samples, excluding PyAV plane padding. The UNO native sensor-hub driver no longer mistakes its CMSIS-DAP debug interface or another USB ACM device for the sensor application. Dashboard camera commands require fresh online controller telemetry; an offline report is not a healthy heartbeat. See repair evidence and limitations.

Voice companion: useful, truthful status — 2026-09-17

• Say “Hey ATLAS, battery status”, “Hey ATLAS, encoder status”, “Hey ATLAS, IMU status”, “Hey ATLAS, why are you stopped?”, or “Hey ATLAS, बैटरी कितनी है?”. Answers use fresh local telemetry; recognition of the spoken question still requires cloud transcription.
• Local Piper English/Hindi speech provides startup and bounded automatic alerts without cloud TTS. Startup distinguishes voice-online from drive-ready; it greets Dhruv once per OS boot, not after every USB reconnect/intercom call.
• Announcements cover BMS low charge, high SOC with a charger-verification disclaimer, newly stale LiDAR/IM10A/encoder data, remote-stop latch, and allowlisted mission events. A ready encoder link at rest is not proof that every wheel encoder works. No imagined arrival or map completion.
• Dashboard ATLAS COMPANION → MUTE AI MIC / ENABLE AI MIC controls a persistent software capture mute. The live acknowledgement is shown below the LED legend; stale status is explicitly unknown. This is not a physical mic disconnect. TALK / LISTEN is a separate explicit intercom session.
• Blue = voice idle, green = capture, white = processing/buffering, pulsing blue = speech. Red also represents software mute or a live call, so read the dashboard state; colour alone is not a fault diagnosis.
• Wake phrases are checked after cloud transcription; active voiced clips can leave the device before a wake phrase is recognized. Mute discards new microphone audio on the Jetson; an already-sent request cannot be recalled. Speech is AI-generated. The current firmware has no physical privacy-mute button; Key2 long-press retains its existing shutdown function.
• Voice stop requests use stop-only /atlas/voice/stop and latch the existing command mux stop. Remote B remains the immediate stop; speech recognition is not a safety-rated emergency stop and may need Internet. Voice cannot reset the latch. Existing neutral/LB-hold/release remote reset is unchanged.
• Wheel-driving voice actions remain uncommissioned by default (ATLAS_VOICE_MOTION_ENABLED=0). Even if separately commissioned, fresh mux policy, no remote latch, autonomous readiness and encoder health are required; existing safety and manual-only restrictions cannot be bypassed.

Tests: python3 -m unittest discover -s project_atlas/scripts -p test_voice_status.py. verify_voice_stationary.py synthesizes both languages with HTTP calls forbidden and observes status/command topics; it publishes no goals or velocity commands. This feature changes no navigation parameters, IMU authority, or camera firmware.

IM10A isolated EKF comparison — 2026-09-17

project_atlas/scripts/atlas_im10a_shadow_test.py runs a bounded 60-second wheel-only versus wheel-plus-gyro comparison in /atlas_imu_shadow. Both filters disable TF publication; live /odom and its EKF configuration are unchanged. Only gyro Z is selected; magnetic/Euler heading, acceleration and the disabled historical bias correction are not used. Stale, invalid or non-increasing IMU messages are rejected. The test stops its own filters on exit and saves results outside Git. It is not an autostart service and does not qualify ATLAS for autonomous operation with the faulty M4 encoder.

Camera remote — 2026-09-17

D-pad left/right pans and up/down tilts the camera; Y returns it to saved home (pan 2300 us, tilt 1500 us). LB is not required for camera operation. Camera commands use a 40 ms minimum interval and only transmit changed axes; actual responsiveness depends on joystick delivery, the hub and servo speed. Held movement uses bounded 400-us/s increments, and delayed hub reports are ignored during an active hold, including at the configured servo limits. The hub uses bounded batch reads instead of one serial line per 50 ms. /arduino/serial_diagnostics exposes unread USB/parser bytes and processed line counts. Old pulse reports cannot overwrite a newer unacknowledged target, even between button presses. Reported pulses are not physical servo feedback. B is exclusively the rover stop and suppresses camera input in that packet. Manual camera input pauses automatic camera tracking. Existing 700–2300 us limits are preserved; no wheel commands are published by this node. Only atlas-camera-joystick.service runs; duplicate atlas-camera-remote.service is disabled. Five mapping tests passed; physical directions need user confirmation.

Manual commissioning and remote software stop — 2026-09-17

Remote and motor services are enabled at boot. Mux startup is latched stopped: Xbox B (verified button index 1) latches a zero-output stop for every mux source. Missing joystick messages for 0.5 s also latch stopped. Releasing B does not restart motion. Release all buttons and centre sticks, hold LB alone for 2 seconds, then release it to reset. Press LB again with deliberate stick input to drive. All other buttons must remain released throughout; stick movement, B, RB or a message gap cancels the gesture. LB is verified Xbox joystick index 4 (remote_reset_button). The complete physical reset gesture still requires operator verification; the earlier Start/Menu reset was replaced. Alternatively, after one second fully neutral, deliberately call /atlas/remote_stop/reset (std_srvs/srv/Trigger). Hold LB to drive; release LB to stop manual drive. This software stop is NOT a substitute for an independent physical motor-power emergency switch.

Live deployment uses 40-manual-commissioning.conf with ATLAS_MANUAL_ONLY=1: non-REMOTE sources are rejected while commissioning continues. The passive encoder observer is disabled to avoid serial contention; the normal base driver publishes feedback. The former commissioning condition file was retained as .conf.disabled and backed up, not deleted. M4 encoder and rear ultrasonic reliability remain unresolved; autonomy is not released. Ten stop-state unit tests and live zero-output startup observation passed. Physical button-to-wheel stopping and remote motion still require operator validation. No powered movement test was issued as part of this deployment.

Wheel mapping — 2026-09-17

Steering centres are front 91 and rear 89 (visually confirmed). Steering limits are unchanged and require checking relative to the new centres.

Confirmed controller order: M1 rear-left, M2 rear-right, M3 front-left, M4 front-right. Forward PWM signs are [-,+,-,+]; validated encoder forward signs for M1–M3 are [-,+,+]. M4 encoder remains faulty/unvalidated. Updated driver mapping does not authorize driving: commissioning inhibits remain, and previous metric encoder scales require revalidation after replacements.

IM10A commissioning — 2026-09-16

The initial stationary bias passed a holdout check, but failed a later recheck and is now disabled. Magnetometer and sensor Euler heading are diagnostics-only, excluded from navigation. Sensor internal fusion mode was not changed. Gyro fusion remains disabled pending measured-turn validation. See bias recheck and turn review.

Hiwonder GPS is now the primary live GPS. IM10A and passive four-channel encoder monitoring are deployed with autostart and dashboard data. IMU/navigation fusion and driving remain inhibited pending physical commissioning. USB paths are socket-specific; keep devices in their assigned sockets. See commissioning report.

Automatic networking — 2026-09-15

atlas-network-fallback.service prefers home Wi-Fi Internet, selects SIM8230G RNDIS Internet after repeated Wi-Fi failures, and activates ATLAS-Rescue if both Internet checks fail repeatedly. The local-only rescue dashboard is http://10.42.0.1:8088/. Its WPA2 password is provisioned on the Jetson only; no password is stored in this repository. The normal dashboard NETWORK panel shows the mode, per-interface Internet checks and hotspot state. The AP's captive portal opens the dashboard through a supported phone's Wi-Fi login prompt; tap Sign in to network if it does not open automatically. Direct local links still work. No Internet or automatic motion is implied.

The single radio cannot be a Wi-Fi client and AP simultaneously. Rescue clients are not disconnected for automatic Wi-Fi recovery; with no clients, home Wi-Fi is retried every three minutes. See network setup and test record.

Main operator diagnostics — 2026-09-15

Use http://100.87.208.71:8088/ (Tailscale) or http://192.168.1.14:8088/ (current LAN address). DIAGNOSTICS / LOGS opens the read-only workbench: current service state, restart counters, current-boot logs, searchable telemetry, last-update age, observed callback rates, USB identities and JSON snapshot export. Visual Cloud remains linked for the ROS graph and mission history. Service state does not prove sensor validity; a stationary encoder heartbeat is not a motion test.

GNSS now separates communication, satellites in view and position fix. Zero-count GSV sentences no longer create misleading "DETECTED" bars. /gps/diagnostics identifies the current SIM8230G USB receiver, stale data and serial reconnects. EOF, changed USB identity and sustained silence reopen only the NMEA reader; they do not reset the modem, network, motor board or navigation stack.

The unused legacy HDMI dashboard has Hidden=true, autostart disabled, and its generated user unit masked on Jetson. Source remains available as a manual fallback. The web dashboard and GNSS service remain enabled at boot. Do not expose port 8088 to the public Internet; use the private LAN or Tailscale. See deployment and test notes.

Primary GPS — 2026-09-15

SIM8230G USB GNSS now supplies the existing /gps/* topics. The disconnected L76K/J12 receiver is no longer selected by atlas-gnss.service. The NMEA port uses its USB by-id identity (interface 03), and atlas-sim8230-usb.service restores the option driver binding at boot. Dashboard labels follow this source. Deployed and built on Jetson; live checksum-validated NMEA verified, but zero satellites and no position fix at commissioning. Position accuracy remains unverified.

Steering commissioning checkpoint — 2026-09-09

Physical front steering is Yahboom channel 2, with user-confirmed lifted center 81 degrees. Physical rear is channel 1, with user-confirmed lifted center 114 degrees. Both centers are saved in the boot-enabled base driver. Front-right operating limit is 50 degrees, approved by the user after the lifted 81 -> 50 -> 81 test; this is not a measured mechanical hard stop. Front-left operating limit is 121 degrees, approved after the lifted 81 -> 121 -> 81 test. Rear-right operating limit is 64 degrees, approved after the lifted 114 -> 64 -> 114 test. Rear-left operating limit is 134 degrees, approved after the lifted 114 -> 134 -> 114 test. These are user-approved servo command limits, not measured wheel angles or mechanical hard stops. Front/rear software labels were corrected while retaining the existing numeric endpoint envelope per channel. Do not infer that turn directions, endpoints or ground drift are validated; keep commissioning lifted until directional checks are complete. Older standalone steering test scripts may contain obsolete channel/center constants; do not run them without reviewing them against this checkpoint.

Secure live-call intercom

ATLAS now has mutually exclusive AI Voice and on-demand WebRTC Live Call modes. A live call requests browser echo cancellation/noise suppression, turns the ESP32 speaker LED red, and automatically returns USB audio ownership to the AI companion when the call ends. The server binds to loopback and must be published only through authenticated Tailscale HTTPS—not the public Internet.

Creator: Dhruv Kaushik

Project ATLAS is an open robotics development project for a four-wheel autonomous service rover. It runs ROS 2 Humble on Ubuntu 22.04 with an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super 8GB and combines LiDAR SLAM, Nav2 autonomous navigation, wheel odometry, IMU sensor fusion, bounded recovery behaviours, AI vision, voice control, Foxglove, and wireless dashboards.

The Jetson web command center uses a 70%-transparent glass interface. Its live camera automatically reconnects after a stalled frame request, and the hardware panel performs a post-boot and continuous health evaluation of sensor feeds, including individual M1 front-right, M2 front-left, M3 back-right, and M4 back-left encoder message age and count readings.

This repository is the searchable engineering record for ATLAS: ROS 2 source code, launch files, robot parameters, hardware integration, safety controls, autonomous mapping, recovery logic, diagnostics, operating documentation, and commissioning evidence.

The read-only ATLAS Visual Cloud integration adds an authenticated ROS graph/traffic agent, historical API and real-time browser view. It has no cloud-to-velocity or cloud-to-motor interface; all safety and control authority remains local on the Jetson.

Search terms: Project ATLAS rover, Dhruv Kaushik, autonomous rover, ROS 2 Humble, Jetson Orin Nano Super, Nav2, SLAM Toolbox, Explore Lite, LiDAR mapping, Ackermann steering, service robot, autonomous navigation, robot recovery, Foxglove, MCP robotics.

Current autonomy maturity

• Core navigation foundation: operational with ROS 2, Nav2, LiDAR SLAM, encoder odometry and IMU/EKF fusion.
• Deterministic recovery: implemented for no-progress detection, LiDAR-validated bounded reverse, costmap clearing and replanning.
• Autonomous mapping: functional and under controlled endurance testing.
• Current engineering gate: repeatable TF/odometry reliability and 20/20 controlled dead-end recovery trials.
• Unattended operation is not yet approved; ground tests require a clear area and an operator at the physical emergency stop.

ATLAS uses its 360-degree LiDAR as the primary navigation and obstacle sensor. Ultrasonic sensors provide close-range secondary protection. AI may select high-level goals, but it cannot bypass the deterministic command mux, watchdog or emergency stop.

Hardware

• Four-wheel rover with wheel encoders and Yahboom motor controller
• RPLIDAR A1, calibrated Yahboom motor-board IMU, ultrasonic sensors, and RD-03D radar
• Arduino UNO R4 WiFi sensor hub carries the I2C sensors, RD-03D radar, camera PCA9685, and four sequentially sampled ultrasonic channels. See firmware/atlas_uno_r4_i2c_hub/README.md.
• The L76K GNSS uses the Jetson J12 UART directly: L76K RX to header pin 8 (TX), L76K TX to pin 10 (RX), and common ground; Linux exposes it as /dev/ttyTHS1 at 9600 baud.
• IMX708 Camera Module 3 on a pan/tilt platform
• GNSS, BMS, BME680, AMG8833 8x8 thermal sensor, Wi-Fi, and cellular connectivity
• Jetson onboard INA3221 power telemetry; the removed external INA219 and Pi UPS HAT are not part of the commissioned system.

The commissioned sensor transport now uses an Arduino UNO R4 WiFi. It forwards the PCA9685 (0x40) discovery state, BME680 (0x76/0x77), AMG8833 (0x68/0x69), RD-03D frames and four ultrasonic ranges over a fixed Jetson USB physical path. The Jetson bridge republishes the original ROS 2 topic names, so Nav2, EKF, dashboards and Foxglove do not depend on the physical bus.

The local web dashboard also consumes a small atomic UNO snapshot as a read-only fallback when DDS discovery is delayed during simultaneous service restarts. Fresh ROS messages always take precedence; the fallback carries no control commands and cannot affect motor or navigation safety.

• ESP32-S3 voice interface and 11-inch touchscreen dashboard

The web Command Center includes both a conventional 2D RD-03D radar scope and a lightweight 3D PEOPLE digital-twin view. The latter places up to three avatars using live radar X/Y coordinates, distance and speed. It is an operator visualization, not a depth-camera body scan, and it does not alter navigation or motor commands.

Mobile notifications

ATLAS can notify Dhruv's Android or iOS phone through the ntfy app when the rover boots, when the main DALY BMS reaches 20%, and when charging remains at 99% or higher for three consecutive BMS readings. Alert state includes hysteresis to avoid repeated notifications near a threshold. Notification HTTP work runs in a separate worker and cannot block ROS motion control.

On the Jetson, run:

bash /home/jetson/project_atlas/scripts/setup_mobile_notifications.sh

Install the ntfy app on the phone and subscribe to the private random topic printed by the setup helper. The private topic is stored only in ~/.config/project-atlas/notifications.env; it must not be committed.

Planned wireless controller upgrade

The broken 11-inch Jetson-connected display will be replaced by a removable 10.1-inch CrowPanel Advanced ESP32-P4 HMI with its optional camera. It will operate as ATLAS's wireless dashboard and manual controller while the Jetson remains responsible for motors, safety, ROS 2, navigation and AI. See docs/CROWPANEL_WIRELESS_CONTROLLER.md for the approved architecture and installation checklist.

Repository layout

• project_atlas_ws/src/: ROS 2 packages and launch/configuration files
• project_atlas/scripts/: operational nodes, dashboard, diagnostics, voice, and recovery tools
• project_atlas/config/: robot configuration
• project_atlas/maps/: current mapping assets

Citation and authorship

Project ATLAS was created by Dhruv Kaushik. Academic papers, articles and derived projects should cite the repository using the metadata in CITATION.cff.

Suggested attribution:

Dhruv Kaushik, Project ATLAS: ROS 2 Autonomous Service Rover, 2026.

AI and MCP control

project_atlas/scripts/atlas_mcp_server.py exposes a small MCP interface for status, sensors, camera snapshots, navigation stop, emergency stop, mapping and return-home. It uses the commissioned Jetson gateway and ROS 2 mission/mux interfaces; it never accesses the motor controller directly.

Motion-capable tools are locked by default. Commission status, sensor, camera and stop behavior first. Only then set ATLAS_MCP_ENABLE_MOTION=1 in the MCP client environment while an operator has access to the physical emergency stop. The MCP process uses stdio and must be launched by the trusted MCP client. It is not a standalone systemd daemon or an unauthenticated network API.

Install its isolated dependency set with:

python3 -m venv /home/jetson/project_atlas/.venv-mcp
/home/jetson/project_atlas/.venv-mcp/bin/pip install \
  -r /home/jetson/project_atlas/requirements-mcp.txt

Generated ROS directories, local environments, models, logs, credentials, and historical backups are intentionally excluded.

Engineering policy

Reliability and safety come before new capability. Implement one feature at a time, build and test it, update documentation, and commit it. Emergency stop must override manual, web, voice, and autonomous commands.

Development baseline

1. Verify hardware diagnostics and TF.
2. Validate wheel odometry and IMU fusion.
3. Validate localization and Nav2.
4. Tune perception and human-aware behavior only after navigation is stable.

Commissioned navigation baseline - 2026-08-06

The Jetson migration and primary navigation commissioning sequence are complete.

• Physical footprint: 0.50 x 0.36 m; Nav2 footprint is [+/-0.25, +/-0.18].
• Costmap inflation radius: 0.28 m with cost scaling factor 15.0.
• Wheel order: M1 front-right, M2 front-left, M3 back-right, M4 back-left.
• Installed 125 mm wheels use independently calibrated encoder counts per revolution: M1 4048.7, M2 3300.6, M3 4080.1 and M4 2697.8.
• LiDAR centre is 0.30 m behind the front chassis edge, placing it 0.05 m behind base_footprint; the authoritative static transform is x=-0.05 m, z=0.18 m, yaw=pi.
• /yahboom/odom is encoder-distance-derived and is fused by the EKF onto /odom.
• The Yahboom motor-board IMU is the sole canonical system IMU and has a separately recorded stationary calibration. Raw controller measurements are available on /yahboom/imu/data_uncalibrated; software-zeroed attitude, gyro and accelerometer measurements are available on /yahboom/imu/data_calibrated. Its yaw is zeroed relative to each driver start because the controller's absolute magnetic origin is not yet trusted. The calibrated values also own the standard /imu/* dashboard, logging, and health topics. Gyro data is deliberately excluded from the EKF until a recorded clockwise/counter-clockwise yaw comparison against wheel odometry passes.
• Nav2 uses the one-shot fail-stop behavior tree. It does not accumulate recovery movement after a failed short goal.
• Explore Lite holds one frontier goal until completion, abort or genuine no-progress timeout. It no longer preempts goals as the frontier boundary moves.
• Exploration stop automatically saves maps/atlas_latest.yaml and maps/atlas_latest.pgm.
• Reboot/autostart verification passed for the base, sensors, SLAM, Nav2, command mux, remote, camera, AI, mission controls, Foxglove and dashboard. Autonomous exploration remains off after boot until explicitly requested.

Ground autonomous tests always require a clear area and an operator at the physical emergency stop. The priority command chain remains REMOTE > WEB > FOXGLOVE > NAV2, with stale-command stopping.

Safety-constrained mission agent

atlas_agent_supervisor.py adds an observe-plan-act-verify layer above the commissioned ROS 2 stack. It accepts natural mission requests on /atlas/agent/command, creates a maximum four-step plan from a fixed tool allowlist, publishes its operator-visible state, requires confirmation for motion, rechecks live safety data, dispatches only high-level mission topics, and verifies the resulting status. It never publishes velocity commands.

The service is commissioned in MONITOR_ONLY mode. In that mode cloud or offline planning can be tested, but no physical action is dispatched. Runtime execution can be enabled through /atlas/agent/set_execution_enabled; motion plans still require /atlas/agent/confirm_plan and must pass the deterministic LiDAR, odometry, SLAM, manual-control and battery preflight.

Useful interfaces:

• /atlas/agent/state, /status, /plan, /decision, /response: dashboard and Foxglove visibility
• /atlas/agent/command (std_msgs/String): natural mission request
• /atlas/agent/confirm_plan, /cancel_plan: explicit operator gate
• /atlas/agent/set_execution_enabled: monitor-only/active selection
• Persistent bounded event memory: ~/.config/project_atlas/agent_memory.json

Retired hardware

The Portenta H7, Mega 2560, BNO055/BNO08x, external INA219, Pi UPS HAT, and old 11-inch wired display have been removed from the active source and Jetson. Their history remains in CHANGELOG.md; they must not be reintroduced by an installer or used as fallback sensor/control paths.

Dashboard battery indicator

The web header now displays main DALY BMS percentage and net charging/discharging state. Tap it for telemetry details. Missing or stale BMS data is explicitly marked; the indicator does not substitute the motor-board voltage estimate.

Dashboard shutdown

Use SHUT DOWN beside Diagnostics / Logs and confirm to power off the Jetson. Wait for shutdown before removing power. Physical motor/battery power is separate. This does not reboot or automatically power ATLAS back on.

Remote startup dependency

atlas-remote.service is enabled under default.target but must not be ordered after that target. Camera joystick units may start after the remote. An explicit service stop is not automatically reversed by Restart=always.