ROS Robotics Projects
Description
Key Features
[*] Create and program cool robotic projects using powerful ROS libraries
[*] Work through concrete examples that will help you build your own robotic systems of varying complexity levels
[*] This book provides relevant and fun-filled examples so you can make your own robots that can run and work
Book DescriptionRobot Operating System is one of the most widely used software frameworks for robotic research and for companies to model, simulate, and prototype robots. Applying your knowledge of ROS to actual robotics is much more difficult than people realize, but this title will give you what you need to create your own robotics in no time! This book is packed with over 14 ROS robotics projects that can be prototyped without requiring a lot of hardware. The book starts with an introduction of ROS and its installation procedure. After discussing the basics, you'll be taken through great projects, such as building a self-driving car, an autonomous mobile robot, and image recognition using deep learning and ROS. You can find ROS robotics applications for beginner, intermediate, and expert levels inside! This book will be the perfect companion for a robotics enthusiast who really wants to do something big in the field.What you will learn
Create your own self-driving car using ROS
Build an intelligent robotic application using deep learning and ROS
Master 3D object recognition
Control a robot using virtual reality and ROS
Build your own AI chatter-bot using ROS
Get to know all about the autonomous navigation of robots using ROS
Understand face detection and tracking using ROS
Get to grips with teleoperating robots using hand gestures
Build ROS-based applications using Matlab and Android
Build interactive applications using TurtleBot
Who this book is forThis book is for robotic enthusiasts and researchers who would like to build robot applications using ROS. If you are looking to explore advanced ROS features in your projects, then this book is for you. Basic knowledge of ROS, GNU/Linux, and programming concepts is assumed.
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Person
Lentin Joseph is an author and robotics entrepreneur from India. He runs a robotics software company called Qbotics Labs in India. He has 7 years of experience in the robotics domain primarily in ROS, OpenCV, and PCL. He has authored four books in ROS, namely, Learning Robotics using Python, Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming, ROS Robotics Projects, and Robot Operating System for Absolute Beginners. He is currently pursuing his master's in Robotics from India and is also doing research at Robotics Institute, CMU, USA.
Content
Getting Started with ROS Robotics Application Development
Face Detection and Tracking Using ROS, OpenCV and Dynamixel Servos
Building a Siri-Like Chatbot in ROS
Controlling Embedded Boards Using ROS
Teleoperate a Robot Using Hand Gestures
Object Detection and Recognition
Deep Learning Using ROS and TensorFlow
ROS on MATLAB and Android
Building an Autonomous Mobile Robot
Creating a Self-driving Car Using ROS
Teleoperating Robot Using VR Headset and Leap Motion
Controlling Your Robots over the Web
Chapter 1. Getting Started with ROS Robotics Application Development
Robotics is one of the upcoming technologies that can change the world. Robots can replace people in many ways, and we are all afraid of them stealing our jobs. One thing is for sure: robotics will be one of the influential technologies in the future. When a new technology gains momentum, the opportunities in that field also increase. This means that robotics and automation can generate lot of job opportunities in the future.
One of the main areas in robotics that can provide mass job opportunities is robotics software development. As we all know, software gives life to a robot or any machine. We can expand a robot's capabilities through software. If a robot exists, its capabilities such as control, sensing, and intelligence are realized using software.
Robotics software involves a combination of related technologies, such as computer vision, artificial intelligence, and control theory. In short, developing software for a robot is not a simple task; it may require expertise in many fields.
If you're looking for mobile application development in iOS or Android, there is a software development kit (SDK) available to build applications in it, but what about robots? Is there any generic software framework available? Yes. One of the more popular robotics software frameworks is called Robot Operating System (ROS).
In this chapter, we will take a look at an abstract concept of ROS and how to install it. The entire book is dedicated to ROS projects, so this chapter will be a kick-start guide for those projects.
The following topics are going to be covered in this chapter:
- Getting started with ROS
- Why we use ROS
- Basic concepts of ROS
- Robot, sensors, and actuators supporting ROS
- Installing ROS
- ROS in industries and research
So let's get started discussing ROS.
Getting started with ROS
ROS is an open source, flexible software framework for programming robots. ROS provides a hardware abstraction layer, in which developers can build robotics applications without worrying about the underlying hardware. ROS also provides different software tools to visualize and debug robot data. The core of the ROS framework is a message-passing middleware in which processes can communicate and exchange data with each other even when running from different machines. ROS message passing can be synchronous or asynchronous.
Software in ROS is organized as packages, and it offers good modularity and reusability. Using the ROS message-passing middleware and hardware abstraction layer, developers can create tons of robotic capabilities, such as mapping and navigation (in mobile robots). Almost all capabilities in ROS will be robot agnostic so that all kinds of robots can use it. New robots can directly use this capability package without modifying any code inside the package.
ROS has widespread collaborations in universities, and lots of developers contribute to it. We can say that ROS is a community-driven project supported by developers worldwide. The active developer ecosystem distinguishes ROS from other robotic frameworks.
In short, ROS is the combination of Plumbing (or communication), Tools, Capabilities and Ecosystem. These capabilities are demonstrated in the following figure:
Figure 1: The ROS equation
The ROS project was started in 2007 in Stanford University under the name Switchyard. Later on, in 2008, the development was undertaken by a robotic research start-up called Willow Garage. The major development in ROS happened in Willow Garage. In 2013, the Willow Garage researchers formed the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF). ROS is actively maintained by OSRF now.
Here are links to their websites:
- Willow Garage: http://www.willowgarage.com/
- OSRF: http://www.osrfoundation.org/
ROS distributions
The ROS distributions are very similar to Linux distributions, that is, a versioned set of ROS packages. Each distribution maintains a stable set of core packages up to the end of life (EOL) of the distribution.
The ROS distributions are fully compatible with Ubuntu, and most of the ROS distributions are planned according to the respective Ubuntu versions.
Given here are some of latest ROS distributions recommended for use from the ROS website (http://wiki.ros.org/Distributions):
Figure 2: Latest ROS distributions
The latest ROS distribution is Kinect Kame. We will get support for this distribution up to May 2021. One of the problems with this latest ROS distribution is that most of the packages will not be available on it because it will take time to migrate them from the previous distribution. If you are looking for a stable distribution, you can go for ROS Indigo Igloo, because the distribution started in 2015, and most of the packages are available on this distribution. The ROS Jade Turtle distribution will stop being supported on May 2017, so I do not recommend you use it.
Supported operating systems
The main operating system ROS is tuned for is Ubuntu. ROS distributions are planned according to Ubuntu releases. Other than Ubuntu, it is partially supported by Ubuntu ARM, Debian, Gentoo, Mac OS X, Arch Linux, Android, Windows, and Open Embedded:
Figure 3: OSes supporting ROS
This table shows new ROS distributions and the specific versions of the supporting OSes:
ROS distribution
Supporting OSes
Kinetic Kame (LTS)
Ubuntu 16.04 (LTS) and 15.10, Debian 8, OS X (Homebrew), Gentoo, and Ubuntu ARM
Jade Turtle
Ubuntu 15.04, 14.10, and 14.04, Ubuntu ARM, OS X (Homebrew), Gentoo, Arch Linux, Android NDK, and Debian 8
Indigo Igloo (LTS)
Ubuntu 14.04 (LTS) and 13.10, Ubuntu ARM, OS X (Homebrew), Gentoo, Arch Linux, Android NDK, and Debian 7
ROS Indigo and Kinetic are long-term support (LTS) distributions, coming with the LTS version of Ubuntu. The advantage of using LTS distribution is that we will get maximum lifespan and support.
Robots and sensors supported by ROS
The ROS framework is one of the successful robotics frameworks, and universities around the globe contribute to it. Because of the active ecosystem and open source nature, ROS is being used in a majority of robots and is compatible with major robotic hardware and software. Here are some of the famous robots completely running on ROS:
Figure 4: Popular robots supported by ROS
The names of the robots listed in the images are Pepper (a), REEM-C (b), TurtleBot (c), Robonaut (d), Universal Robots (e).
The robots supported by ROS are listed at the following link:
The following are links to get ROS packages of robots from:
- Pepper: http://wiki.ros.org/Robots/Pepper
- REEM-C: http://wiki.ros.org/Robots/Robonaut2
- TurtleBot 2: http://wiki.ros.org/Robots/TurtleBot
- Robonaut: http://wiki.ros.org/Robots/Robonaut2
- Universal Robotic arms: http://wiki.ros.org/universal_robot
Some popular sensors supporting ROS are as follows:
Figure 5: Popular robot sensors supported in ROS
The names of the sensors listed in the image are Velodyne (a), ZED Camera (b), Teraranger (c), Xsens (d), Hokuyo Laser range finder (e), and Intel RealSense (f).
The list of sensors supported by ROS is available at the following link:
These are the links to the ROS wiki pages of these sensors:
- Velodyne(a): http://wiki.ros.org/Velodyne
- ZED Camera(b):http://wiki.ros.org/zed-ros-wrapper
- Teraranger(c): http://wiki.ros.org/terarangerone
- Xsens(d): http://wiki.ros.org/terarangerone
- Hokuyo Laser range finder(e): http://wiki.ros.org/hokuyo_node
- Intel real sense(f): http://wiki.ros.org/realsense_camera
Why ROS
The main intention behind building the ROS framework is to become a generic software framework for robots. Even though there was robotics research...
