Install phosphobot

Control your robot arm in seconds with phosphobot on any computer

Install phosphobot

The quickest way to get started is to use the install script and a compiled version. In a terminal, run the following command:

macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/phospho-app/phosphobot/main/install.sh | bash

Then, run the phosphobot server:

phosphobot run

It can take up to 15 seconds for the server to start.

On the same computer, open a web browser and navigate to localhost. You should now see the phosphobot dashboard.

Send your first commands

Discover how to control your robot arm from the dashboard and from the Meta Quest app.

Using uv (pip)

phosphobot is also available as a Python package. We recommend using uv to install it.

1. Install uv by running the following command in your terminal:

macOS and Linux

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

2. Run phosphobot with uv by running the following command in your terminal:

uvx phosphobot@latest run

Using the @latest tag ensures you always run the latest version of phosphobot.

If you want to run a specific version, you can specify it:

uvx phosphobot>=0.30 run

Check the uv doc on how to manually handle updates.

Troubleshooting

Depending on your system, you may encouter errors related to pybullet compilation. If so, please refer to this guide that list some common issues and how to fix them..

MacOS (brew)

On MacOS, use Homebrew to install phosphobot:

brew tap phospho-app/phosphobot
brew install phosphobot

To update phosphobot, run the following command:

brew update && brew upgrade phosphobot

You can also directly download the binaries here.

Linux (apt)

On Linux, we use apt to distribute phosphobot and you need additional packages. That’s why you need to run the install script with sudo:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/phospho-app/phosphobot/main/install.sh | sudo bash

To update phosphobot, run the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade phosphobot

Raspberry Pi (apt)

phosphobot on Raspberry Pi has advanced features to make it easier to use (led ticking, bluetooth connection, WiFi hotspot, extra dependencies already installed).

Setup your Raspberry Pi

If you already have a setup Raspberry Pi, you can skip this part

Download and install the Raspberry Pi imager on your main computer.

Insert an SD card into your main computer.

Run the Raspberry Pi imager.

• Select your Raspberry Pi model (the version in the dev kit is Raspberry Pi 5).
• Select the Raspberry Pi OS (64 bit)?
• Select your SD card?

Then, click Next on the bottom right.

When the window pops up asking for OS customisation, select Edit Settings.

In general settings :

• Set hostname to phosphobot?

• Set username and password to phosphobot and password123 (example).

• Configure wireless LAN: add your Wifi network name, password, and country. Be careful: tHiS iS cAsE sEnSiTiVe!

  

In the Services settings, make sure SSH is enabled.

Then hit Save and hit Yes to use the OS customization settings. Write the image to the SD card.

When writing is finished, take out the SD card from your computer.

Insert the microSD into the Raspberry Pi when it’s turned off.

1. SSH into the Raspberry Pi

SSH (Secure Shell) allows you to access the Raspberry Pi remotely from your main computer through the terminal.

Turn on the Raspberry Pi by plugging it to a power source. Wait for it to boot (look for the LED pattern)

Then, open a terminal and SSH into your Raspberry Pi. If you’ve followed the previous part, this means running on your computer this command :

ssh [e-mail]

If you didn’t follow the previous part, the [e-mail] and password may be different.

When asked about the authenticity of host phosphobot.local, type yes to accept.

And when asked for password, enter password123 .

2. Install the software

When you’ve successfully SSH in the Raspberry Pi, run this to install the teleoperation server :

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/phospho-app/phosphobot/main/install.sh | sudo bash

Your Raspberry Pi should be connected to the internet.

• When prompted btberrywifi install location, leave blank.
• When prompted bluetooth password, leave blank
• When prompted Enter your country code, specify your country code (eg: US, FR…)

After that, the installation script will download install dependencies. It can take a few minutes depending on your connection speed.

3. Once the installation is complete, reboot your Raspberry Pi.

sudo reboot

Every time the control module is powered on, it will check for updates and install them automatically. They will be available the next time you power it on.

Windows

Windows (Install script)

1. To install or update phosphobot, run the following command in PowerShell:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/phospho-app/phosphobot/main/install.ps1 | iex"

2. To start the phosphobot server, run the following command in PowerShell.

phosphobot run

3. When the “Windows protected your PC” warning appears, click “More info”, then click “Run anyway”.

The warning only appears on first run. Subsequent launches work normally.

Windows (manual)

You can also directly download the binaries here.. After downloading, run phosphobot this way:

C:\path\to\phosphobot.exe run

Change C:\path\to\ to the path where you downloaded phosphobot. To make this easier, we recommand you to rename the file to phosphobot.exe and move it to your Desktop.

Then, you can create a shortcut to launch C:\Users\<your_username>\Desktop\phosphobot.exe run from anywhere.

Windows (WSL)

You can use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to run phosphobot.

1. Please refer to this guide to install WSL on your Windows machine.
2. Use usbipd to pass the robot arms and the cameras to WSL.
3. Carry on with the Linux installation instructions.

Install from source

phosphobot is open source and you can install it from source to contribute to the project or fix compatibility issues.

You can find the instructions in the GitHub repository right here

Support

Discord

Join the Discord to ask questions, get help from others and get updates