Book Image

ROS Robotics By Example

Book Image

ROS Robotics By Example

Overview of this book

The visionaries who created ROS developed a framework for robotics centered on the commonality of robotic systems and exploited this commonality in ROS to expedite the development of future robotic systems. From the fundamental concepts to advanced practical experience, this book will provide you with an incremental knowledge of the ROS framework, the backbone of the robotics evolution. ROS standardizes many layers of robotics functionality from low-level device drivers to process control to message passing to software package management. This book provides step-by-step examples of mobile, armed, and flying robots, describing the ROS implementation as the basic model for other robots of these types. By controlling these robots, whether in simulation or in reality, you will use ROS to drive, move, and fly robots using ROS control.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
ROS Robotics By Example
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Introducing Baxter


Baxter is a two-armed robot created by Rethink Robotics to be a collaborative worker for the manufacturing industry. Each of Baxter's arms has seven degrees of freedom (DOF) and a series of joint actuators that make Baxter unique as a manufacturing robot. Baxter's joints are composed of series elastic actuators (SEAs) that have a spring between the motor/gearing and the output of the actuator. This springiness makes Baxter's arms compliant and capable of detecting external forces such as contact with a human. This advantage makes Baxter safe to work alongside people without a safety cage. The SEAs also provide greater flexibility for control using the torque deflection as feedback for the control system.

Baxter, as shown in the following figure, sports sensors that enable Baxter to perform many tasks:

  • 360-degree sonar sensor at the top of Baxter's head

  • 1024 x 600 pixel screen face with built-in camera

  • Camera, infrared sensor, and accelerometer on the cuff at the end of each...