Teleoperation Quickstart

From a fresh clone to a live teleoperation session. Pick your path — drive the real Axol robot, or the software simulator with no hardware required. Both are driven from the VR headset; the simulator just swaps the motors for a browser visualizer.

Real Axol robot
Simulator

Install

Install the package using uv, then activate the virtual environment so the axol CLI is on your path:

uv sync
source .venv/bin/activate

You will need to activate in every new shell session. Alternatively, prefix every command with uv run (e.g. uv run axol can.setup) to skip activation.

Set up CAN (one-time)

Plug in the Axol Hub, then run the one-time CAN setup. This writes udev rules, assigns fixed interface names, and registers a startup script so the interfaces come up automatically on every reboot.

axol can.setup

sudo is invoked automatically. You will not need to run this again unless you reinstall the OS or swap the Axol Hub.

After any subsequent replug mid-session (without a reboot), bring the interfaces back up with:

axol can.enable

Verify motors

With the robot powered on and CAN up, read a status snapshot from one motor to confirm communication is working:

axol motor.info --l --id 0x01   # left shoulder_1
axol motor.info --r --id 0x01   # right shoulder_1

You should see position, velocity, torque, temperature, and voltage. Any DISABLED or error status means power or CAN isn’t reaching that motor.

Accept the TLS certificate

The VR app connects over a self-signed HTTPS/WSS connection. Before opening the app, you must accept the certificate in the VR headset’s browser — otherwise the WebSocket handshake will be silently rejected.

Start axol teleop briefly (see the next step) — it will print your hostname and IP.
In the VR headset browser, navigate to https://<hostname>.local:8000 or https://<local-ip>:8000.
Proceed past the security warning.
You only need to do this once per machine (the cert is cached in ~/.almond/vr/certs/).

Teleop

axol teleop

The terminal will print the hostname and IP address. Open the VR app at axol.almond.bot on the headset and enter either address to connect.

Install

Add the sim extra for the browser visualizer, then activate the virtual environment:

uv sync --extra sim
source .venv/bin/activate

You will need to activate in every new shell session. Alternatively, prefix every command with uv run (e.g. uv run axol teleop --sim) to skip activation.

No CAN setup or motor verification is needed in sim — there’s no hardware to talk to.

Accept the TLS certificate

Start axol teleop --sim briefly (see the next step) — it will print your hostname and IP.
In the VR headset browser, navigate to https://<hostname>.local:8000 or https://<local-ip>:8000.
Proceed past the security warning.
You only need to do this once per machine (the cert is cached in ~/.almond/vr/certs/).

Teleop in sim

axol teleop --sim

Opens a browser visualizer at http://localhost:8080 and runs the same VR server on port 8000 — drive the simulated robot from the headset exactly like the real one. Great for verifying network connectivity and VR tracking before powering the robot.

See the teleop CLI reference for the full flag list (stiffness, gripper limits, per-joint gains, config files).

Controller layout

#	Button	Action
1	Left grip	Press both 1 + 2 to enable arm movement; press either alone to disable
2	Right grip	Same as above
3	Left trigger	Actuate left gripper
4	Right trigger	Actuate right gripper
5	X	Reset — returns both arms to the rest pose
7	Y	Exit AR — closes the VR session

Grip is a toggle, not a hold. Press both grips together to start moving the arms; press either grip on its own to freeze them.

Network tip

If VR tracking feels jittery or arrives in bursts, configure the following on your router or access point:

Setting	Value
DTIM interval	`1`
Beacon interval	`100` ms
WMM APSD (U-APSD)	disabled

These prevent the AP from batching packets between beacon intervals, which causes intermittent latency spikes that are especially noticeable in VR.

Teleoperation Quickstart

Controller layout

Network tip

Next steps

Data Collection

Policy Inference

Documentation Index

​Controller layout

​Network tip

​Next steps

Data Collection

Policy Inference

Controller layout

Network tip

Next steps