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

TurtleBot's odometry


In this section, we explore the TurtleBot's odometry. The general definition of odometry is the use of data from motion sensors, such as wheel encoders, to estimate change in Turtlebot's position over time. Odometry is used by the TurtleBot to estimate its position and orientation relative to its starting location given in terms of an x and y position and an orientation around the z (upward) axis as the TurtleBot moves.

The odometry data to determine position and orientation can become very inaccurate as the TurtleBot moves a long distance. The inaccuracy can be due to errors in the robot's parameters such as incorrect wheel diameters used in calculation of distance or due to the uneven driving surfaces causing the wheel encoders to output inaccurate data. A comprehensive discussion of odometry is found in the paper Measurement and Correction of Systematic Odometry Errors in Mobile Robots by Johann Borenstein and Liqiang Feng. The paper can be found at the following site...