Configure keyboard/Mouse control#

IR-SIM supports reading the keyboard and mouse input to control the robot manually.

Keyboard Control Configuration Parameters#

In the keyboard control mode, the behavior of the robot is controlled by the user and the settings in the YAML file will be ignored. By default IR-SIM uses Matplotlib figure key events (no extra dependency). If you prefer a global keyboard hook, you can use the optional pynput backend:

pip install pynput

To start with the keyboard control, you can simply to specify the control_mode parameter in the world section as keyboard. The example of the keyboard control is shown below:

Python Script

import irsim

env = irsim.make()

for i in range(1000):

    env.step()
    env.render(0.05)

    if env.done():
        break

env.end()

YAML Configuration

world:
  height: 50  
  width: 50   
  control_mode: 'keyboard'  
  obstacle_map: 'cave.png'
  mdownsample: 2

robot:
  - kinematics: {name: 'acker'} 
    shape: {name: 'rectangle', length: 4.6, width: 1.6, wheelbase: 3}
    state: [5, 5, 0, 0]
    goal: [40, 40, 0]
    vel_max: [4, 1]
    plot:
      show_trail: True
      traj_color: 'g'
      show_trajectory: True
      show_goal: False

    sensors: 
      - type: 'lidar2d'
        range_min: 0
        range_max: 20
        angle_range: 3.14
        number: 100
        alpha: 0.4

Demonstration

Keyboard Control Key Mapping#

Key	Function
`w`	Forward
`s`	Backward
`a`	Turn Left
`d`	Turn Right
`q`	Decrease Linear Velocity
`e`	Increase Linear Velocity
`z`	Decrease Angular Velocity
`c`	Increase Angular Velocity
`alt+num`	Change Current Control Robot ID
`r`	Reset the Environment
`space`	Toggle Pause/Resume Environment
`esc`	Quit the Environment
`x`	Switch Keyboard/Auto Control
`l`	Reload the Environment

Environment Status Control#

The space key toggles between “Pause” and “Running” based on the current state. If the environment hasn’t entered Running yet, the first press may set it to “Running”.

You can access the current environment status through the env.status attribute:

import irsim

env = irsim.make()

for i in range(1000):
    env.step()
    env.render(0.05)
    
    # Check current status
    print(f"Environment status: {env.status}")
    
    if env.done():
        break

env.end()

Select Keyboard Backend (Matplotlib vs pynput)#

Default backend: mpl (Matplotlib figure key events). No extra package required.
Optional backend: pynput (global keyboard hook). Requires pynput to be installed. If pynput is unavailable, IR-SIM automatically falls back to mpl.

Add a keyboard section at the root of the YAML to configure the backend and key parameters:

world:
  control_mode: 'keyboard'

gui:
  keyboard:
    backend: 'mpl'         # 'mpl' (default) or 'pynput'
    key_id: 0              # initial robot control id
    # key_lv_max: 3.0      # maximum linear velocity
    # key_ang_max: 1.0     # maximum angular velocity
    # key_lv: 0.0          # initial linear velocity
    # key_ang: 0.0         # initial angular velocity

Mouse Control#

IR-SIM supports the mouse control to zoom in and out the environment and track the mouse position. The mouse control is enabled by default. For example, you can use mouse left click to set the goal of the robot.