MiniRobot Control Over 5G

Control a Wheeltec robot with a gamepad over 5G and watch its HD camera on the server.

• D-pad Up/Down moves forward/backward relative to the rear-mounted camera.
• Speed is 0.30 m/s. Analog steering is preserved.
• Camera streams 1080p at 30 fps with a 6 Mbps H.264 target.
• The robot starts its modem, controller, and camera automatically at boot.
• The server programs are started manually after reboot.

Start the existing setup

Run these on the server, in order. Use separate terminals for the gNB, gamepad, and viewer. Do not launch another copy if one is already running.

1. Core and route

cd ~/Desktop/5gCore/ocudu_parent/ocudu/docker
sudo docker compose up -d --wait 5gc
sudo systemctl restart robot-ue-route.service

2. gNB

cd ~/Desktop/robot_ocudu/ocudu/build/apps/gnb
sudo ./gnb -c ./gnb.yml

Power on the robot and wait for it to connect. It can also be powered on first; its modem service retries until the network is ready.

3. Gamepad

cd ~/Desktop/robot_ocudu
./gamepad_interface -p 9020 -i 10.45.0.2 \
  -g usb-D_TGZ_Controller_3E5296D0-event-joystick

4. Camera viewer

cd ~/Desktop/robot_ocudu
./view_ue_camera.sh

Keep these three terminals open. Releasing the D-pad returns to the left stick, so center the stick to stop. Ctrl-C in the gamepad terminal sends a stop command. The robot also has a five-second command timeout.

Files

Folder	Contents
server/	Gamepad source and test, camera viewer, gNB configuration, UE route service
server/core/	Open5GS Docker build, configuration, subscriber helper, NAT fixes
robot/boot/, robot/systemd/	Automatic 5G, base, controller, and camera startup
robot/scripts/	Camera pipeline and startup wrappers
robot/ros2/	Working UDP-to-ROS controller, including its stop timeout
robot/vendor-src/, robot/udev/	Base driver, dependencies, active Mini Mec model, launch settings, device rules

Restore/build instructions · Network and troubleshooting · Versions and file origins

SIM credentials and SSH passwords are excluded. Fill in server/core/open5gs/open5gs.env.example locally when restoring. The existing machines already have their settings.

The robot startup services and 5G internet were verified after a power cycle on 14 October 2026. The connection later dropped and recovered, with RF underflows reported by the gNB. A full server cold-boot test and a clean-machine rebuild have not been performed.