Create a command

Suggest Edits

Before you can issue a command to your robot, you'll have to create one in your Formant organization. This guide will teach you how to create a command.

Step 1: Create a command

In Formant, in the upper-left corner, open the menu and click Settings.
Click Commands >> Add command.
Give your command a name and click Continue.
Choose which devices can receive this command by applying an appropriate set of tags, and then click Next.

📘
For more information on tags, see Configure access levels.

Step 2: Configure your command

Using built-in Formant commands

You can configure one of the built-in Formant commands as follows:

Command	Usage
`formant.get_file`	Ingest a file from your device.
`formant.publish_ros_topic`	Publish a message to a ROS topic.
`formant.run_script`	Run a script on the device.

Configuring `formant.get_file`

configuring the formant get file command — Configuring the built-in `formant.get_file` command.

Parameter	Usage
Command	Enter `formant.get_file`.
Absolute file path on device	Absolute file path of the file on your device which you want to ingest.
Description	Description that will display to the user when selecting this command.

Configuring `formant.publish_ros_topic`

configuring the built in formant publish ros topic command — Configuring the built-in `formant.publish_ros_topic` command.

Parameter	Usage
Command	Enter `formant.publish_ros_topic`.
ROS topic	Name of the ROS topic to which you want to publish.
String to be published	String you want to publish to the specified ROS topic.
Description	Description that will display to the user when selecting this command.

Configuring `formant.run_script`

Configuring the built-in formant run script command — Configuring the built-in `formant.run_script` command.

Parameter	Usage
Command	Enter `formant.run_script`.
Absolute file path of script	Absolute file path of the script on your device which you want to run. Script should start with a shebang (`#!`).
Description	Description that will display to the user when selecting this command.

Creating a custom command

In addition to the built-in commands offered in Formant, you can also generate custom commands which trigger callbacks on your robot. To accomplish this, you'll first create the command in the Formant web application, and then program its function using the Formant Agent SDK.

configuring a custom command — Configuring a custom command.

Property	Usage
Command	Enter the name of the command for which you will write a callback function using the Agent SDK, exactly as it will appear in your program.
Command parameters	If your command has input parameters, or output values, specify those variables here. If you specify a value for these parameters, that will be the default value of this command.
Description	Enter a description. This will appear when issuing the command in the Formant UI.

Step 3 (custom command only): Write an Agent SDK script which handles your command

Using the Agent SDK, write a script which registers a command request callback.

For more information and an example of how to accomplish this in the Agent SDK, see Agent SDK: Handling commands.

📘
For a complete reference of the Agent SDK, see Agent SDK: Complete reference.

Create a command

Step 1: Create a command

📘

Step 2: Configure your command