Book Image

ROS Robotics By Example, Second Edition - Second Edition

By : Carol Fairchild, Lentin Joseph, Dr. Thomas L. Harman
Book Image

ROS Robotics By Example, Second Edition - Second Edition

By: Carol Fairchild, Lentin Joseph, Dr. Thomas L. Harman

Overview of this book

ROS is a robust robotics framework that works regardless of hardware architecture or hardware origin. It standardizes most layers of robotics functionality from device drivers to process control and message passing to software package management. But apart from just plain functionality, ROS is a great platform to learn about robotics itself and to simulate, as well as actually build, your first robots. This does not mean that ROS is a platform for students and other beginners; on the contrary, ROS is used all over the robotics industry to implement flying, walking and diving robots, yet implementation is always straightforward, and never dependent on the hardware itself. ROS Robotics has been the standard introduction to ROS for potential professionals and hobbyists alike since the original edition came out; the second edition adds a gradual introduction to all the goodness available with the Kinetic Kame release. By providing you with step-by-step examples including manipulator arms and flying robots, the authors introduce you to the new features. The book is intensely practical, with space given to theory only when absolutely necessary. By the end of this book, you will have hands-on experience on controlling robots with the best possible framework.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
ROS Robotics By Example Second Edition
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
Index

Introducing rviz


Rviz, abbreviation for ROS visualization, is a powerful 3D visualization tool for ROS. It allows the user to view the robot model, display and/or log sensor information from the robot's sensors, and replay the logged sensor information. By visualizing what the robot is seeing, thinking, and doing, the user can debug a robot application from sensor inputs to planned (or unplanned) actions.

Rviz displays 3D sensor data from stereo cameras, lasers, Kinects, and other 3D devices in the form of point clouds or depth images. 2D sensor data from webcams, RGB cameras, and 2D laser rangefinders can be viewed in rviz as image data.

If an actual robot is communicating with a workstation that is running rviz, rviz will display the robot's current configuration on the virtual robot model. For example, if a real two-armed robot like Baxter has his arms in a certain pose, then the robot model will display that pose in rviz. The ROS topic containing arm configuration information as well...