start_ursim.sh should have an option to start the simulator with remote mode enabled

[acmorrow]

Feature summary

Short introduction to the feature and why it should be implemented
For use-cases where remote control is expected, requiring a manual step to enable it frustrates use of the simulator in CI.

Followed by a longer description
I'm working with the simulator to (hopefully) drive testing for an environment where the robot is operated primarily in remote mode. Unfortunately, the simulator always starts up with remote mode disabled, and manual steps via the settings menu are required to enable it.

For CI purposes, we would like to be able to launch the simulator so that remote mode is enabled from boot without manual intervention.

[urfeex]

Which PolyScope version are your referring to? For PolyScope 5 and CB 3 remote control mode shouldn't make any difference for the simulator. For PolyScope X I am not sure, as the implementation is quite new, there.

[acmorrow]

@urfeex - Thanks for getting back to me. So, this is actually the first time I've heard of PolyScopeX. I filed this issue in this repo because the way I've been interacting with the simulator is by starting it with ./scripts/start_ursim.sh -m ur20 or ./scripts/start_ursim.sh -m ur5e, and the start_ursim.sh script lives in this repo. From what I can see, these commands get me PolyScope 5, always. So, I'm not even sure how to start the simulator in such a way that I'd get PolyScope X. Should we be upgrading our physical arms to it, if that is possible/meaningful? Is PolyScope 5 headed for EOL? Should we plan to get everything working with PolyScope X rather than continuing with 5?

Getting back to my original request: while you are correct in one sense that remote control mode doesn't make any difference to the simulator, it does make a difference on a physical robot, and so our software is aware of the difference and is reactive to it. So, in order to make our software work correctly against the simulator, it is currently a prerequisite to manually go into the settings in a running simulator instance to enable remote mode, every time the simulator is restarted.

Since we would like to use the simulator in CI to test our software, where new instances of the simulator will be created and destroyed without user interaction, it would be helpful if there was a way to start the simulator up so that remote mode was enabled from the start.

[urfeex]

From what I can see, these commands get me PolyScope 5, always. So, I'm not even sure how to start the simulator in such a way that I'd get PolyScope X. Should we be upgrading our physical arms to it, if that is possible/meaningful? Is PolyScope 5 headed for EOL? Should we plan to get everything working with PolyScope X rather than continuing with 5?

PolyScope X is our new UI and ecosystem. If you specify a software version e.g. -v 10.10.0 you will get a PolyScope X simulator. Existing robots can only be upgraded if the control box is recent enough. To my knowledge, there is no EOL date for PolyScope 5, yet.

So, if I understand you correctly, in order to test your own software in CI, you want to check whether the robot is in remote control mode and then test different paths of your software, if that's the case, right? And you would merely like to automate the simulator startup in remote control mode for those test cases.

In order to have remote control enabled in the settings, I think it should be enough to keep /ursim/.polyscope persistent. e.g. by adding -v ${POLYSCOPE_STORAGE}:/ursim/.polyscope \ after this line with having the path set in POLYSCOPE_STORAGE being an existing folder on your host system.

You would still have to actually enter remote control mode though the UI as far as I know, but you wouldn't have to go through the settings to enable it beforehand anymore.

I hope, that helps.