A rugged tracked base, fully documented.
A dual-track, skid-steer chassis built on the HAWE Mattro ROVO platform for outdoor and rough-terrain autonomous mobile robot (AMR) work — ROS 2 Jazzy, Gazebo Harmonic simulation and Nav2 navigation layered on top by MYBOTSHOP.
From power-on to first drive
ROVO3 units pre-configured with ROS 2 boot straight into ROS2 Mode — the ROVO controller's own joystick and gears are disabled by design, and only its emergency stop keeps working. Everything else routes through ROS 2.
Default for ROS-ready units
The joystick and gears on the physical ROVO controller are locked out; only the emergency stop remains active. Drive it via ROS 2 instead — Logitech controller, webserver, or ros2 service/topic calls.
Manufacturer mode
To fall back to the stock HAWE Mattro radio controller, power off rovo_platform via the webserver's Service Management panel — this re-enables the physical joystick and gears.
ROVO Remote Controller stays powered
The ROS 2 driver refuses to operate without the ROVO Remote Controller powered on — it's the emergency-stop path. Keep it on and its own E-stop released whenever the robot is live.
Release E-stop & boot
Release the robot's emergency stop (turn clockwise), press the power button, and wait ~1 minute for a full boot. Then release the E-stop on the remote controller too, and power the controller on.
Drive with the Logitech pad
Press the vibration button to confirm the Logitech controller is on, use the D-pad to select a gear, then LB + Left Stick for forward/back and LB + Right Stick for yaw.
Power off
Set the gear to neutral (0), stop any running applications, then use the main power switch.
What E-stop does — and how to clear it
When pressed
- All motor power is immediately cut
- The robot enters a safe parking state
- ROS 2 services keep running — motion commands are simply ignored
Clearing it
This page follows the R&D-kit / ROS 2 extension of ROVO3's operation — for base power-on and hardware operation, see the manufacturer documentation shipped with the robot, or the MYBOTSHOP ROVO3 User Manual (PDF).
Reaching the robot over SSH or the webserver
A fixed set of reserved addresses on the robot's own subnet — don't set your computer's IP to any of these.
Network table
| Device | IP Address | Login |
|---|---|---|
| Robot MCU | 192.168.131.1 | robot / mybotshop |
| Webserver | 192.168.131.1:9000 | admin / mybotshop |
| Steamdeck | 192.168.131.150 | deck / mybotshop |
| Router / Router-Web | 192.168.131.200 | SSID mybotshop / admin |
| Ouster LiDAR | 192.168.131.20 | — |
Static connection (first time)
ifconfig to find your local IP, ping 192.168.131.1 to verify the link, then ssh -X robot@192.168.131.1 (password mybotshop). Only keep the robot's connection active — other active networks are a common source of connection issues.
Nine packages, one tracked base
The full stack lives in /opt/mybotshop — documented here for ROS 2 Jazzy, the shipping distribution as of v2.0. Humble support is listed on the source docs as "Coming Soon" across every section.
Platform Driver
rovo_platform talks CAN bus (500 kbit/s) to the tracks: joint states, IMU, odometry and cmd_vel, plus set_gear / set_mode services. Gear must be set to 1–3 before cmd_vel does anything, and back to 0 when done.
Teleoperation
Four paths, arbitrated by rovo_controller's twist-mux priority table: Logitech joystick (highest, deadman LB), Steamdeck, the webserver's browser joystick, and keyboard teleop as a fallback.
Navigation (Nav2)
rovo_navigation covers SLAM mapping, odometry-only navigation (no map needed) and full map-based autonomous navigation, plus GPS-based outdoor navigation via the webserver's waypoint recorder.
Sensors
Intel RealSense D435i depth camera and Ouster OS1-64 LiDAR (default IP 192.168.131.20), both toggleable from the webserver or systemctl, plus the platform's integrated IMU and BMS battery-state topic.
Simulation (Gazebo Harmonic)
rovo_gazebo simulates the tracked drive with Gazebo's TrackedVehicle + per-side TrackController plugins — skid-steer contact kinematics, not articulated wheel joints. Three worlds ship: plane, substation and moon.
Debugging
Standard rqt_gui/rqt_tf_tree tooling remapped onto the robot's namespaced TF, plus candump can0 for the CAN bus directly and a documented common-troubleshooting list (failed startup jobs, service restarts, network interference).
See it in the browser
A guided tour of the ROVO3 webserver, straight from the driver package's own documentation.
The nine rovo_* ROS 2 packages
rovo_description
URDF/Xacro description, meshes, view-robot launch file.
rovo_platform
CAN driver, odometry, IMU, gear/mode services.
rovo_controller
Joystick teleop and twist-mux command arbitration.
rovo_gazebo
Gazebo Harmonic simulation, worlds and sensor bridges.
rovo_navigation
Nav2 SLAM, odometry and map navigation launch files.
rovo_viz
Pre-configured RViz2 displays (full, model-only, Steamdeck).
rovo_autostart
systemd services, udev rules, environment setup.
rovo_webserver
Flask-based web control interface (port 9000).
rovo_interface
RovoGear / RovoModes custom service definitions.
Full command reference, config parameters, published/subscribed topics and installation steps for every package: MYBOTSHOP ROVO3 User Manual (PDF).
Manuals, ROS 2 docs & robot description
Everything needed to operate the ROVO3 safely, develop against its ROS 2 stack, or bring its model into your own tooling.
MYBOTSHOP ROVO3 User Manual
A single self-contained manual: network/SSH quick start, the ROS2/Radio-Controller mode switch and power-on sequence, the full ROS 2 Jazzy package reference, and the platform's safety & maintenance guidelines.
Download PDFROVO3 Robot Description (URDF)
The rovo_description package: xacro source and the original glTF (.glb) visual/collision meshes for the chassis, both tracks and the control box, plus sensor xacros (D435i, Ouster, Emlid M2) and package.xml. Every joint is fixed — locomotion is Gazebo's TrackedVehicle plugin, not articulated joints. The in-browser viewer above uses an STL-converted copy of the same geometry, since this site's viewer doesn't carry a glTF loader.
Looking for the ROVO3 flyer, assembly manual, CAN interface documentation, or the full private ROS 2 driver source? Those are customer-only documents — ask us directly.
If something goes wrong
Two steps, in order — the forum first for fast community and staff triage, then a direct ticket if it needs to go further.
MYBOTSHOP Forum
Open a topic on the MYBOTSHOP Forum for community and staff triage — most software questions and known issues get resolved here first. For code-level bugs, GitHub Issues, StackOverflow and Answers-ROS are also in play.
Direct ticket & RMA
If it's unresolved, email support@mybotshop.de with the problem description and what's already been tried. For hardware issues we'll issue an RMA number and return instructions — returns without an RMA number are auto-rejected.
RMA returns ship to: MYBOTSHOP GmbH, Willy-Messerschmitt-Strasse 12, 50126 Bergheim, Germany. Do not ship goods to QUADRUPED Robotics GmbH Office in Leverkusen!
We're here for the whole deployment
A fleet rollout, an outdoor GPS-navigation project, or a question about the CAN interface — the MYBOTSHOP team can help.
support@mybotshop.de