🤖 Reachy Mini Complete Guide

Dashboard
Backend

⚠️ Critical Requirements

  • ✅ Reachy and your computer MUST be on the exact same WiFi network
  • ✅ After power on, wait 60 seconds for dashboard to start
  • ✅ You MUST click the red switch in dashboard to activate backend
  • ✅ Same subnet required (2.4GHz and 5GHz are often different!)

🚀 Quick Start

# 1. Power on Reachy (plug in power adapter)
# 2. Wait 60 seconds for boot
# 3. Verify connection
./aurion status

# 4. Open dashboard
open http://reachy-mini.local:8000/

# 5. CRITICAL: Click red switch to activate backend!

# 6. Test movement
./aurion emotion curious
./aurion speak "Hello, I am AURION"

📡 Network Configuration

Same Subnet Requirement

The PC and Reachy MUST be on the exact same subnet. Even networks with similar names like "HomeWiFi-2.4G" and "HomeWiFi-5G" are often different subnets!

✅ WILL WORK:
PC:     HomeWiFi-5G (192.168.1.100)
Reachy: HomeWiFi-5G (192.168.1.110)

❌ WON'T WORK:
PC:     HomeWiFi-5G (192.168.1.100)
Reachy: HomeWiFi-2.4G (192.168.0.110)

Verify Network

# Check your network
networksetup -getairportnetwork en0

# Test connection
ping reachy-mini.local

🔄 Boot Sequence Stages

Stage 1: Hardware Boot (0-30s)

  • Raspberry Pi 4 boots Linux
  • Network connects to saved WiFi
  • mDNS registers reachy-mini.local

Stage 2: Dashboard Service (30-60s)

  • Web server starts on port 8000
  • Health check endpoint active
  • Dashboard accessible but backend OFF

Stage 3: Backend Dormant (60s+)

  • Motor control service NOT auto-started
  • Red switch shows in dashboard
  • Movement APIs return "Backend not running"

Stage 4: Manual Activation Required!

  • Click red switch in dashboard
  • Backend initializes motors
  • Movement libraries load
  • Full operation ready

🔌 Essential API Commands

# Health Check
curl -X POST http://reachy-mini.local:8000/health-check

# List 70+ Emotions
curl http://reachy-mini.local:8000/api/move/recorded-move-datasets/list/\
  pollen-robotics/reachy-mini-emotions-library

# List 19 Dances
curl http://reachy-mini.local:8000/api/move/recorded-move-datasets/list/\
  pollen-robotics/reachy-mini-dances-library

# Play Emotion
curl -X POST http://reachy-mini.local:8000/api/move/play/\
  recorded-move-dataset/pollen-robotics/\
  reachy-mini-emotions-library/curious1

# Play Dance
curl -X POST http://reachy-mini.local:8000/api/move/play/\
  recorded-move-dataset/pollen-robotics/\
  reachy-mini-dances-library/groovy_sway_and_roll

⚡ AURION CLI Commands

# Check complete status
./aurion status

# Play emotions
./aurion emotion happy
./aurion emotion curious
./aurion emotion thinking

# Play dances
./aurion dance simple_nod
./aurion dance groovy_sway_and_roll

# Text-to-speech
./aurion speak "Hello, I am AURION"

# Sequences
./aurion emotion curious && sleep 3 && \
  ./aurion speak "What is this?"

🔧 Common Issues

Can't reach reachy-mini.local:8000

  • Check both devices on same WiFi network
  • Verify not on different bands (2.4 vs 5GHz)
  • Disable VPN if active
  • Try direct IP instead of .local

Dashboard loads but movements fail

  • Did you click the red switch in dashboard?
  • Backend takes 5 seconds to initialize after switch
  • Check ./aurion status shows Backend: Active

Backend not running error

  • This means you haven't activated the backend
  • Open http://reachy-mini.local:8000/
  • Find and click the red power switch
  • Wait for it to turn green/blue