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

Launching TurtleBot 2 simulator in Gazebo


The simulator package Gazebo was introduced in Chapter 2, Creating Your First Two-Wheeled ROS Robot (in Simulation). If you run the examples there using the differential drive robot, dd_robot, you should have a good understanding of Gazebo, including how to load models and worlds and manipulate the environment.

To run the simulator, you need to install the TurtleBot software, as described in the previous section.

To start the simulation, open a new terminal window and type the following command:

$ roslaunch turtlebot_gazebo turtlebot_world.launch

If all goes well, you will see a screenshot similar to this one:

TurtleBot simulated in Gazebo

If you do not see Gazebo start, refer to the following Problems and troubleshooting section. If that is the case, there are a few issues that may help you if you are having problems with the simulation and the use of Gazebo.

TurtleBot is in the approximate center of the world view, as seen from an overhead camera. The...