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

Launching Baxter Simulator in Gazebo


Before launching Baxter Simulator in Gazebo, it is important to check the ROS environment variables. To start up Baxter Simulator, use the following commands to get to your Baxter catkin workspace and run your baxter.sh script with the sim parameter:

$ cd ~/baxter_ws
$ ./baxter.sh sim

At this point, check your ROS environment with the following command:

$ env | grep ROS

Within the output screen text, look for the following result:

ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311
ROS_IP= <your workstation's IP address>

or

ROS_HOSTNAME=<your workstation's hostname>

The ROS_HOSTNAME field need not be present.

If there are issues with Baxter's hardware, software, or network, refer to the general Baxter troubleshooting website at http://sdk.rethinkrobotics.com/wiki/Troubleshooting.

The baxter.sh script should run without errors and the ROS environment variables should be correct. The next section covers the first experience of running Baxter Simulator.

Bringing...