Secure Robot Teleoperation

This work extends a mobile-robot teleoperation study into outdoor and disaster-simulation environments. I built the software path from a Windows operator station to an Ubuntu NUC and Interbotix VX300S arm, then hardened it with authentication, replay protection, fail-safe neutral behavior, configuration tooling, and dependency-light tests.

Engineering contributions

• Read DualShock 4 input on Windows at a configurable 30 Hz and republish ROS 2 Joy messages at 50 Hz on Ubuntu
• Translate Windows and Pygame controller data into the Linux DualShock layout used by the Interbotix control stack
• Design a versioned JSON protocol with HMAC-SHA256 authentication, timestamps, sequence numbers, and per-run session IDs
• Reject tampered, stale, replayed, and retired-session packets while supporting safe sender restarts
• Implement touchpad dead-man control, joystick deadzones, disarmed neutral commands, and a 350 ms automatic neutral timeout
• Build a thread-safe UDP receiver with synchronized state, monotonic timeout tracking, and configurable network-test mode
• Externalize controller mappings through JSON and add an inspection utility for device-specific index differences
• Write tests for authenticated round trips, invalid keys, neutral translation, replay protection, and sender restarts
• Document setup and diagnostics across Windows, NetBird, Ubuntu, ROS 2, and Interbotix
• Add robotic-arm motion constraints, a 3D-printable mounting base, restricted-area warnings, and a VR teleoperation interface

System path

The repository is private, so this project is presented as a case study.