Lesson 18 - BonicBot Connection Lifecycle

Learning Objective

• Initialize BonicBot instances with custom host IP, port, and timeout arguments.
• Utilize Python context managers (with statements) to guarantee safe resource connection and teardown.
• Monitor active robot connection status using bot.is_connected().

Introduction

Communication with your robot relies on a steady network socket. The bonicbot_bridge SDK provides the BonicBot class to handle connection setup, heartbeat polling, and graceful disconnection.

Using Python context managers ensures your scripts close sockets properly even if an unexpected error occurs.

Code

from bonicbot_bridge import BonicBot, ConnectionError
 
ROBOT_HOST = "192.168.0.188"
ROBOT_PORT = 9090
 
# 1. Recommended: Using context manager (with statement)
try:
    with BonicBot(host=ROBOT_HOST, port=ROBOT_PORT, timeout=5) as bot:
        if bot.is_connected():
            print(f"✅ Connected to robot at {bot.host}:{bot.port}")
        else:
            print("❌ Connection failed")
            
    # Sockets are automatically closed upon leaving the 'with' block
    print("Exited context manager block cleanly.")
 
except ConnectionError as err:
    print(f"⚠️ Could not reach robot: {err}")
 
# 2. Alternative: Manual lifecycle management
print("\n--- Manual Connection Test ---")
bot_manual = BonicBot(host=ROBOT_HOST)
try:
    print("Is connected:", bot_manual.is_connected())
finally:
    bot_manual.disconnect()
    print("Disconnected manual instance.")

[!NOTE] Before running the code, make sure to replace ROBOT_HOST = "192.168.0.188" with your BonicBot’s actual IP address.

Expected Output

🤖 Connected to BonicBot at 192.168.0.188:9090
✅ Connected to robot at 192.168.0.188:9090
🔌 Disconnected from BonicBot
Exited context manager block cleanly.

--- Manual Connection Test ---
🤖 Connected to BonicBot at 192.168.0.188:9090
Is connected: True
🔌 Disconnected from BonicBot
Disconnected manual instance.

🔧 Under the Hood

self.ros = Ros(host=self.host, port=self.port)
self.ros.run()

Student Challenge

Challenge 1 — Python Only

Write a function test_robot_connection(ip_address) that attempts to connect using BonicBot. It must return True if successful, or catch ConnectionError and return False.

from bonicbot_bridge import BonicBot, ConnectionError
 
def test_robot_connection(ip_address):
    try:
        with BonicBot(host=ip_address, timeout=3) as bot:
            return bot.is_connected()
    except ConnectionError:
        return False
 
print("Connection test result:", test_robot_connection("192.168.0.188"))

Challenge 2 — Robot

Connect to the robot using a 5-second timeout, print whether bot.is_connected() is True, print bot.host and bot.port, and exit.

from bonicbot_bridge import BonicBot
 
with BonicBot(host="192.168.0.188", timeout=5) as bot:
    print("Status:", bot.is_connected())
    print("Address:", f"{bot.host}:{bot.port}")

Quick Reference

Reflection Questions