Small city robot not working — confirmed hardware issue, not code

ROSDS Support
1

I was connected to the SmallCity Lab (FastBot) real robot for the Linux Basics for Robotics course project. The robot did not move despite the following being verified working correctly:

  1. robot_interface.py started successfully and printed READY.
  2. My bash scripts (using ros2 param set) reported “Set parameter successful” consistently, with live/changing scan and odometry values being read back correctly.
  3. Verified with ros2 topic echo /cmd_vel that Twist messages were being published correctly (linear.x: 0.1, angular: 0.0) while my script ran.
  4. Ran ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard directly and pressed the movement keys — the robot still did not move.
  5. Also tried the on-screen joystick in the camera stream UI — the robot still did not move.

Since both an independent standard ROS2 tool (teleop_twist_keyboard) and the on-screen joystick failed to move the robot, this points to a hardware/connection issue on the robot itself rather than anything in my code or workspace.

From the camera feed, the robot appeared to be positioned in a corner of the arena against the track boundary.

Could you please check the FastBot hardware in the SmallCity Lab? I’d like to re-book a session once it’s confirmed working so I can complete and demonstrate my project.

Thanks for your help.