teleop_twist_keyboard
- Software
- Middleware
- Tool
A ROS 2 node that turns keyboard presses into velocity commands, letting you drive a robot by hand from a terminal.
Made by ROS 2.
Source on GitHub: github.com/ros2/teleop_twist_keyboard (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 2024cfe (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- BSD-3-Clause (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (BSD-3-Clause) at commit 2024cfe (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Reads keypresses and publishes them as Twist messages, working best with a US keyboard layout.
- Letters u, i, o, j, k, l, m, comma and period move the robot in planar directions.
- Holding shift switches to holonomic mode, so the robot strafes sideways.
- Keys t and b move up and down along z; any other key stops the robot.
- Keys q/z, w/x and e/c raise or lower overall, linear-only and angular-only speeds by 10%.
- Can publish TwistStamped messages with a chosen frame_id, and remap the output topic such as to my_cmd_vel.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 2024cfe.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- How to start
- The project's README (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Active: a commit in the last 90 days
- Newest commit
- 28 Sept 2026 on rolling
- Latest release
- None published on GitHub
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots on Robotheca that use it
No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.
Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.