Quick Introduction to ROS
Installing Ubuntu
1 14.04
Quick and painless with Virtualbox
Open Virtualbox
◉ Install Virtualbox
◉ Download Ubuntu
14.04
◉ Install to a USB
drive
Time for a demo!
Let’s install Ubuntu on a USB drive.
I’ve uploaded a video of this to
Youtube here: https://
youtu.be/UGl0x2ZT_cI
NOTE: use Ubuntu 14.04 NOT 16.04
as in video!!!!!!!!
Installing ROS Indigo
Full details here - See Chapter 4.1, Installing ROS
https://github.com/StevenShiChina/books/blob/master/ros%20by%20exam
ple%20vol%201%20indigo.pdf
2 What is ROS?
Getting started with the concepts
ROS is huge
ROS is an open-source, meta-operating system for
humanoid robots
What can ROS do?
◉ Why ROS?
◉ Research development:
− Fast prototyping easier in a simulated world.
− Lots of packages for sensing, movement, path
planning etc.
− Error free environment for debugging
− Break bits, not real hardware
◉ Transferring from simulated robot to real robot takes
a bit of effort, but works!
What can ROS do?
◉ Hardware abstraction
◉ Low-level device control
◉ Message passing between nodes
◉ Sophisticated build environment
◉ Libraries
◉ Debugging and Visualization Tools
What are the major concepts?
◉ ROS packages
◉ ROS messages
◉ ROS nodes
◉ ROS services
◉ ROS action servers
◉ ROS topics
◉ ...and many more!
Packages
◉ ROS software is organized into packages
− Each package contains some combination of code,
data, and documentation
package_name/
package.xml ← describes the package and it’s dependencies
CMakeLists.txt ← Finds other required packages and
messages/services/actions
src/ ← C++, Python code (includes in include/ folder)
scripts/ ← Python scripts for your node
msg/ ← ROS messages defined for your node (for topics)
srv/ ← ROS services defined for your node (for services)
launch/ ← folder contains .launch files for this package
Building/Running
◉ Catkin is the official build system of ROS
− Catkin combines Cmake macros and Python scripts to provide some
functionality on top of Cmake’s normal workflow
◉ Run ROS code
−
−
ROS Nodes
◉ The ROS framework is component oriented
◉ Each component is called a node
○ A node is a process
○ Nodes communicate through topics, services, and
actions
So what does this mean?
◉ Hardware talks to drivers, which then talk to
nodes, which then talks to ROS
◉ Nodes can run any software you want as long as it
is a language ROS supports
ROS as a framework
◉ ROS Master
sends/receives
◉ Several nodes at once
◉ Whole network on your
computer
Topics
◉ Each node can listen on or publish messages to
topics
− Built in message types (std_msgs)
− User defined messages
−
Complex.msg
float32 real
float32
imaginary
Example: Rospy Tutorials Talker_Listener
http://wiki.ros.org/rospy_tutorials/Tutorials/WritingPublisherSubscriber
Services
◉ A node can provide services – synchronous
remote procedure calls
− Request
− Response
Example: Rospy Tutorials: Server/Client – Add 2 integers, return result
http://wiki.ros.org/rospy_tutorials/Tutorials/WritingServiceClient
Launch Files
◉ Automate the launching of collections of ROS nodes
via XML files and roslaunch
◉
−
−
Launch Files
◉ You can also pass parameters via launch files
◉
−
−
Command Line Tools
◉
−
Rviz: Robot Visualization
Arbotix Simulator (Homework 1): Turtlebot Simulation
https://github.com/pirobot/rbx1/blob/indigo-devel/rbx1_nav/nodes/timed_out_and_back.py
ROS as a framework cont.
◉ Kinect2 →
/kinect2/images
◉ Publishes image messages
◉ What are messages?
Robots in the wild - Problems
● I don’t have a Robot in front of me
● I want to try something that may break my
Robot
● Setting up the Robot takes too much time, I
want to test changes to my code quickly
Gazebo Simulator
Gazebo Simulator
● Same interface as real robot
● Add/remove 3D items in environment
● Physics engine to simulate effects of motor
commands
● Collision detection
● Updated sensor feedback
● Debugging info
Gazebo Demo
● Add object to world
○ Physics
○ Simulated Sensor Output Topics
If you have a question
● Look in Tutorials:
○ http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials
● Reference class slides/codes provided
● Google it
● http://answers.ros.org/questions/
● Ask a TA
