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Safety

uMe is a full-size humanoid. Treat every live session as physical-safety-critical.

Built-in safeguards

  • Emergency stop. The estop command (the app's red Stop button) damps all motors instantly and forces DAMP. Keep it within reach at all times.
  • Guarded mode changes. Entering PREP uses a slide-to-confirm control, so the robot never extends its body by accident.
  • Gated locomotion. Joysticks and move are only active in WALK; a damped or unprepared robot cannot be driven.
  • WALK after PREP only. The app disables WALK until the robot has been prepared.
  • Clear status. Warnings from the robot and mode hints are shown prominently and take priority in the UI.

Mock mode for development

The Gateway can be started in mock mode (--mock): every command is validated and logged and status is streamed, but no motion is executed. Use it for app development, scripts and CI.

The installed service runs in real mode

On a commissioned robot the autostart service runs with --real — motors respond as soon as the service is up. Never assume a robot is "only mocking": check with systemctl --user status ume-gateway.service and keep the stop within reach.

First live run

  • Only with a responsible person at the robot, physical stop in reach.
  • Start from DAMP, go to PREP, place the robot on the ground, then WALK.
  • Keep the app's Stop button visible and ready.
  • Expect that an emergency stop halts the control service and requires re-preparing the robot.

Network safety

The Gateway has no authentication yet — network isolation is the security boundary. Keep port 8765 on the LAN only and never expose it to the internet. On the robot, change default credentials and prefer an SSH key (see Gateway Deployment).