Lesson 22 - Robot Telemetry & Pose

Learning Objective

• Query instant 2D pose coordinates (x, y, heading) and traveled distance using BonicBot.
• Inspect onboard hardware status telemetry including battery percentage and IMU orientation quaternions.
• Synchronize telemetry stream readiness using bot.wait_for_data().

Introduction

State estimation allows a robot to track where it is in the world and monitor hardware health metrics. The bonicbot_bridge SDK maintains background subscriptions to odometry, IMU, and system status topics through SensorManager.

This lesson covers querying live pose coordinates, traveled distance, battery levels, and IMU data.

Code

from bonicbot_bridge import BonicBot
 
with BonicBot(host="192.168.0.188") as bot:
    print("1. Waiting up to 5s for active sensor telemetry stream...")
    ready = bot.wait_for_data(timeout=5.0, require_imu=True)
    print("Telemetry active:", ready)
 
    # 2. Reading Pose Coordinates
    pose_dict = bot.get_position()
    print("Full Pose Dict:", pose_dict)
 
    x = bot.get_x()
    y = bot.get_y()
    heading = bot.get_heading()
    print(f"Individual Pose Components -> X: {x:.2f}m | Y: {y:.2f}m | Heading: {heading:.1f}°")
 
    # 3. Traveled Distance & Battery Status
    dist = bot.get_distance_traveled()
    battery = bot.get_battery()
    print(f"Distance Traveled: {dist:.2f}m | Battery Level: {battery}%")
 
    # 4. IMU Orientation Quaternions
    imu_data = bot.get_imu_data()
    imu_orient = bot.get_imu_orientation()
    print("IMU Orientation Quaternion:", imu_orient)

Expected Output

🤖 Connected to BonicBot at 192.168.0.188:9090
1. Waiting up to 5s for active sensor telemetry stream...
Telemetry active: True
Full Pose Dict: {'x': 0.14, 'y': -0.02, 'theta': 358.7}
Individual Pose Components -> X: 0.14m | Y: -0.02m | Heading: 358.7°
Distance Traveled: 0.00m | Battery Level: 85.0%
IMU Orientation Quaternion: {'x': 0.0, 'y': 0.0, 'z': 0.01, 'w': 0.999}
🔌 Disconnected from BonicBot

🔧 Under the Hood

Student Challenge

Challenge 1 — Python Only

Write a function quaternion_to_yaw_deg(z, w) that computes heading in degrees from quaternion parameters z and w.

import math
 
def quaternion_to_yaw_deg(z, w):
    yaw_rad = 2.0 * math.atan2(z, w)
    yaw_deg = math.degrees(yaw_rad)
    return yaw_deg % 360.0
 
print("Yaw angle for (z=0.707, w=0.707):", round(quaternion_to_yaw_deg(0.707, 0.707), 1), "deg")

Challenge 2 — Robot

Read the robot’s initial position start_pos = bot.get_position(), drive forward 0.5m, and print bot.get_distance_traveled(start_pos).

from bonicbot_bridge import BonicBot
 
with BonicBot(host="192.168.0.188") as bot:
    bot.wait_for_data(timeout=3.0)
    start_pos = bot.get_position()
    
    bot.drive_distance(dist=0.5, speed=0.2)
    elapsed = bot.get_distance_traveled(start_pos)
    print(f"Calculated distance traveled from start: {elapsed:.3f}m")

Quick Reference

Reflection Questions