Getting Started - The Platform

Get your ROS2 robot connected to The Platform in a few minutes.

Create an Account

Get Your API Key

Go to your Profile page and copy your API key. You'll need it in the next step.

Install the ROS2 Driver

On your robot (running ROS2 Humble, Iron, or newer), run this one command:

bash <(curl -sSL https://platform.burf.co/install/ros2) click to copy

The installer will walk you through everything interactively:

Workspace Detects your ROS2 workspace or creates one

Robot ID & Name Asks you to pick a unique ID for your robot

Topics Asks for your camera, odom, IMU, scan, and cmd_vel topics (with sensible defaults)

API Key Asks for the API key from your profile

Dependencies Installs websockets, psutil, and optionally opencv + aiortc for WebRTC video

Auto-start Optionally creates a systemd service to start on boot

See Your Robot in the Dashboard

Open your dashboard - your robot will appear as soon as the driver connects. Click on it to get live video, joystick control, and sensor monitoring.

That's it - your robot is now remotely accessible from anywhere in the world.

Reference: ROS2 Topics

The driver bridges these standard ROS2 topics to the platform:

Direction	Default Topic	Message Type	Description
Subscribes	`/camera/image_raw`	sensor_msgs/Image	Camera feed (streamed via WebRTC)
Subscribes	`/odom`	nav_msgs/Odometry	Wheel odometry
Subscribes	`/imu/data`	sensor_msgs/Imu	IMU orientation and acceleration
Subscribes	`/scan`	sensor_msgs/LaserScan	LiDAR data (downsampled)
Publishes	`/cmd_vel`	geometry_msgs/Twist	Movement commands from the web UI

All topic names are configurable. The installer asks you for each one. You can also change them later in config/burf_driver.yaml.

Show config file example...

                    # config/burf_driver.yaml

                    server_url: "wss://platform.burf.co/ws/robot"

                    robot_id: "my-rover-01"

                    api_key: "paste-your-api-key-here"

                    # ROS2 topics (adjust to match your robot)

                    camera_topic: "/camera/image_raw"

                    odom_topic: "/odom"

                    imu_topic: "/imu/data"

                    cmd_vel_topic: "/cmd_vel"

                    scan_topic: "/scan"

                    # Performance tuning

                    telemetry_rate: 5.0  # Hz

                    video_fps: 10

What's Next?

REST API - Build custom integrations using your API key with Authorization: Bearer <your-key>

Other Robots - We also support Sanbot ELF, QNAP Afobot, Double 2, and InMoov

FAQ - Common questions about video latency, security, and custom robots