Open Source Robotics ROS Revisited
The third article in this series focuses on open source software for robotics. In Part 1, the reader was introduced to ROS (Robot Operating System). Here, a few more features of ROS are discussed and a novel aspect of mobile robots is introduced—simultane
We are now ready to delve deeper into some more interesting features of the Robot Operating System (ROS). Let’s explore the basic architecture of ROS, teleoperation, the graphical tool rviz, SLAM, and a GUI for ROS.
These discussions are derived from basic examples and default tutorials for ROS. I hope that avid Linux enthusiasts will make their way to http://www.ros.org/wiki, http:// answers.ros.org and http://planet.ros.org/.
Basic architecture of ROS
ROS works via a client-server model, where the server is roscore. Starting roscore order to work with ROS. Tools such as roscd, rxgraph, roswtf, etc, are provided for easy navigation in the ROS use of these commands, interfaces and tools.
To really enjoy the next few sections it is advisable to install ROS Electric. An Ubuntu 10.04 LTS installation has been used to test the simulations discussed here. For more information on ROS installation, visit http://www. ros.org/wiki/ROS/Installation.
Also, some packages need to be built with rosmake before we start the next section: rosmake teleop_base rosmake gmapping
Teleoperation
Teleoperation is to control an actual or simulated robot, using real-time user input. Here, we discuss the erratic robot in stage simulation; the user input is via keyboard. To orchestrate teleoperation, it is necessary to invoke the master, as follows: