The use of sensors and actuators in robotics is very important since it is the only way to interact with the real world. In this chapter, you have learned how to use, configure, and investigate further on how some common sensors and actuators work, which are used by a number of people in the world of robotics. We are sure that if you wish to use another type of sensor, you will find information on the Internet about how to use it, without problems.
In our humble opinion, Arduino is a very interesting device because with it, you can add more devices or cheap sensors to your computer and use them within the ROS framework easily and transparently. Arduino has a large community, and you can find information on many sensors, which cover the spectrum of applications you can imagine.
Finally, we must mention that the range laser will be a very useful sensor in the upcoming chapters. The reason is that it is a mandatory device to implement the navigation stack, which relies on the range readings...