Skip to main content

Remote Mode

Remote mode is used when a sensor is connected to a compute unit. The development computer accesses the compute-unit service over the network and creates a remote Sensor instance using the sensor serial number and the compute unit's mac_addr.

Prerequisites​

  • Connect the sensor to the compute unit and verify that the sensor service is running on the compute unit.
  • Ensure that the development computer can reach the compute unit and discover its EzROS/DDS services.
  • Obtain the compute unit's master service name. It normally follows the format master_{mac_addr}, for example master_000000000000. Replace it with the actual service name when connecting.
  • Install xensesdk[viz] to run the remote example with its visualization interface.

The IP address is used for network connectivity and device discovery; it is not a direct argument to Sensor.create(). To create a remote sensor, pass the mac_addr portion of the master service name.

Using the ezros CLI​

Installing the XenseSDK Python Wheel also provides the ezros command-line tool. It can scan EzROS nodes, show Xense master version and sensor information, call services, and monitor basic topics.

  • When configuring remote mode, run ezros -a to list all nodes, or ezros -i to quickly verify the master service and connected sensors.
  • Run ezros service -n master_{mac_addr} -c scan_sensor_sn to test the sensor-query service directly.
  • Run ezros --help to see the complete parameter reference.

Find remote sensors​

Call the master service's scan_sensor_sn action to list sensors connected to the compute unit:

from xensesdk import call_service

master_service = "master_000000000000"  # Replace with the actual service name
serial_map = call_service(
    master_service,
    "scan_sensor_sn",
    timeout_sec=1,
)

if not serial_map:
    raise RuntimeError("No remote sensor found")

print(serial_map)

The result contains the available sensor serial numbers. If multiple sensors are connected, select the required serial number instead of assuming that the first item is the target sensor.

Create a remote sensor​

Extract mac_addr from the master service name and pass it to Sensor.create() with the target sensor serial number:

from xensesdk import Sensor

serial_number = "OG000001"  # Replace with the target serial number from serial_map
mac_addr = master_service.split("_", 1)[1]
sensor = Sensor.create(serial_number, mac_addr=mac_addr)

Read data​

A remote instance uses the same selectSensorInfo() interface as a local instance:

from time import sleep

try:
    while True:
        rectify, depth = sensor.selectSensorInfo(
            Sensor.OutputType.Rectify,
            Sensor.OutputType.Depth,
        )
        print("rectify:", rectify.shape, "depth:", depth.shape)
        sleep(0.02)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    pass
finally:
    sensor.release()

If call_service() returns no result, check the master service name, compute-unit service status, and network connectivity. Service names and actions are provided by the compute-unit firmware; use EzROS to inspect available services before calling other remote actions.

Complete remote-mode exampleSee complete code for remote sensor discovery, connection, multimodal output retrieval, and visualization.
Open GitHub example ↗