ReSpeaker Microphone Array

For this tutorial, we will get a high-level view of how to use Stretch's ReSpeaker Mic Array v2.0.

Stretch Body Package

In this section we will use command line tools in the Stretch_Body package, a low-level Python API for Stretch's hardware, to directly interact with the ReSpeaker.

Begin by typing the following command in a new terminal.

stretch_respeaker_test.py

The following will be displayed in your terminal:

For use with S T R E T C H (TM) RESEARCH EDITION from Hello Robot Inc.

* waiting for audio...
* recording 3 seconds
* done
* playing audio
* done

The ReSpeaker Mico Array will wait until it hears audio loud enough to trigger its recording feature. Stretch will record audio for 3 seconds and then replay it through its speakers. This command line is a good method to see if the hardware is working correctly.

To stop the python script, type Ctrl + c in the terminal.

ReSpeaker_ROS Package

A ROS package for the ReSpeaker is utilized for this section.

Begin by running the sample_respeaker.launch file in a terminal.

roslaunch respeaker_ros sample_respeaker.launch

This will bring up the necessary nodes that will allow the ReSpeaker to implement a voice and sound interface with the robot.

Below are executables you can run to see the ReSpeaker results.

rostopic echo /sound_direction    # Result of Direction (in Radians) of Audio
rostopic echo /sound_localization # Result of Direction as Pose (Quaternion values)
rostopic echo /is_speeching       # Result of Voice Activity Detector
rostopic echo /audio              # Raw audio data
rostopic echo /speech_audio       # Raw audio data when there is speech
rostopic echo /speech_to_text     # Voice recognition

An example is when you run the speech_to_text executable and speak near the microphone array. In a new terminal, execute:

rostopic echo /speech_to_text

In this instance, "hello robot" was said. The following will be displayed in your terminal:

transcript:
  - hello robot
confidence: []
---

You can also set various parameters via dynamic_reconfigure by running the following command in a new terminal.

rosrun rqt_reconfigure rqt_reconfigure