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Reference

Command-line tools

naoctl on the robot and the nao-rs CLI on your computer, every command and what it touches.

naoctl (on the robot)

naoctl is installed with the robot bundle at /home/nao/hulk/bin/naoctl. Run it on the robot as the nao user.

Death switch

These three work at any time, also while hulk runs. They only touch the death switch page.

CommandWhat it does
naoctl statusPrints whether the switch is armed or tripped, why and for how long, and the runtime's heartbeat: process id, cycle, age of the last beat, last all-off cycle
naoctl stopTrips the switch (reason Cli) and prints the status
naoctl rearmRe-arms the switch. Only after a person has checked the robot. The robot stays limp until the app or an API wakes it
$ naoctl status
armed: motors may move
driver: pid 812, cycle 52210, last beat 2.7 ms ago, last all-off cycle 0

Hardware commands

These open the chest board or the head bus themselves, so whatever else drives them must be stopped first: systemctl stop hulk on nao-rs, or HAL (and LoLA for the head) on the original stack. Stop the guard too (sudo systemctl stop nao-rs-guard) for guard.

CommandWhat it does
naoctl prefsStarts the link, reads the chest board preferences and prints every key and value, with the size, CRC and time taken
naoctl run [seconds]Runs the whole runtime (chest board in HAL's order, head bus, fan, death switch) for 10 seconds or the given time. Sets the chest blue, the eyes green and the sonar on, and prints the state twice a second. Boards are accepted as HAL 2.8.5 does, so the motors stay off
naoctl guard [seconds]Runs the guard (what nao-rs-guard runs) for 30 seconds or the given time and prints its events
naoctl head [seconds]Runs the head driver: eyes cycle red, green and blue, ears and skull on; prints touch, power and face temperature
naoctl replay-sensors <hal.log> [frames]Sends the frames of a HAL recording, byte for byte, through the link and decodes the robot's real answers

naoctl reads the death switch path from NAO_RS_DEATHSWITCH when it is set (default /run/nao-rs/deathswitch).

nao-rs (on your computer)

The nao-rs CLI is part of the nao-rs repository. Run it from a checkout as cargo nao-rs <command>; it needs ssh and scp, and an x86_64 Linux host with Docker for robot builds.

CommandWhat it does
nao-rs stop <address>Death switch. Sends the UDP stop to the guard on port 7701, ten times 5 ms apart. Works when hulk is stuck. Re-arm on the robot
nao-rs robot build [--host <host>]Builds dist/nao-rs-robot.tar.gz (hulk, nao-rs-guard, naoctl, units, installer) in HULKs' NAO SDK container on <host> (default atlas)
nao-rs robot install <address> [--bundle <file>]Installs the bundle on a robot running HULKs-OS, with health check and automatic rollback. See Install
nao-rs robot restore <address>Removes nao-rs and brings back HAL, LoLA and HULA
nao-rs agent tools <agent-id> [--mode agent\|live] [--dry-run]Adds or updates nao-rs's client tools on your ElevenLabs agent; never touches its prompt, voice or model. See Voice agent
nao-rs app [--webots <path>]Builds the macOS app with the simulator
nao-rs release <version> [--host <host>]Builds the app and the robot bundle and publishes them as a GitHub release

The installer connects as nao with the default password nao.

Chest board and fan tools

Ports of Aldebaran's chest-version, chest-mode, chest-harakiri, alfand and fanspeed, plus a read-only faninfo, are built from the drivers repository; they are not in the robot bundle yet. See Chest board link and Temperatures, fan and thermal protection.

Robot API

The TCP API on port 7700 that the brain and other clients use today - framing, handshake, heartbeat and watchdog, every message and its fields.

Troubleshooting

What to check when nao-rs doesn't start, the death switch won't stay armed, the guard takes over, or a tool can't open the chest board.

On this page

naoctl (on the robot)Death switchHardware commandsnao-rs (on your computer)Chest board and fan tools