Book Image

ROS Programming: Building Powerful Robots

By : Anil Mahtani, Aaron Martinez, Enrique Fernandez Perdomo, Luis Sánchez, Lentin Joseph
Book Image

ROS Programming: Building Powerful Robots

By: Anil Mahtani, Aaron Martinez, Enrique Fernandez Perdomo, Luis Sánchez, Lentin Joseph

Overview of this book

This learning path is designed to help you program and build your robots using open source ROS libraries and tools. We start with the installation and basic concepts, then continue with the more complex modules available in ROS, such as sensor and actuator integration (drivers), navigation and mapping (so you can create an autonomous mobile robot), manipulation, computer vision, perception in 3D with PCL, and more. We then discuss advanced concepts in robotics and how to program using ROS. You'll get a deep overview of the ROS framework, which will give you a clear idea of how ROS really works. During the course of the book, you will learn how to build models of complex robots, and simulate and interface the robot using the ROS MoveIt motion planning library and ROS navigation stacks. We'll go through great projects such as building a self-driving car, an autonomous mobile robot, and image recognition using deep learning and ROS. You can find beginner, intermediate, and expert ROS robotics applications inside! It includes content from the following Packt products: ? Effective Robotics Programming with ROS - Third Edition ? Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming ? ROS Robotics Projects

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ROS Programming: Building Powerful Robots
Anil Mahtani | Aaron Martinez | Enrique Fernandez Perdomo | Luis Sánchez | Lentin Joseph
Mar, 2018 | 0 hours 0 minutes
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Table of Contents (37 chapters)
Title page
Title page
Copyright and Credits
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Packt Upsell
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Getting Started with ROS
Getting Started with ROS
PC installation
How to install VirtualBox and Ubuntu
Using ROS from a Docker image
Installing ROS in BeagleBone Black
Summary
2
ROS Architecture and Concepts
ROS Architecture and Concepts
Understanding the ROS Filesystem level
Understanding the ROS Computation Graph level
Understanding the ROS Community level
Tutorials to practise with ROS
Summary
3
Visualization and Debugging Tools
Visualization and Debugging Tools
Debugging ROS nodes
Logging messages
Inspecting the system
Setting dynamic parameters
Dealing with the unexpected
Visualizing nodes diagnostics
Plotting scalar data
Image visualization
3D visualization
Saving and playing back data
Using the rqt_gui and rqt plugins
Summary
4
The Navigation Stack - Robot Setups
The Navigation Stack - Robot Setups
The navigation stack in ROS
Creating transforms
Publishing sensor information
Publishing odometry information
Creating a base controller
Creating a map with ROS
Summary
5
The Navigation Stack - Beyond Setups
The Navigation Stack - Beyond Setups
Creating a package
Creating a robot configuration
Configuring the costmaps - global_costmap and local_costmap
Creating a launch file for the navigation stack
Setting up rviz for the navigation stack
Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization
Modifying parameters with rqt_reconfigure
Avoiding obstacles
Sending goals
Summary
6
Manipulation with MoveIt!
Manipulation with MoveIt!
The MoveIt! architecture
Integrating an arm in MoveIt!
Simple motion planning
Motion planning with collisions
The pick and place task
Summary
7
Using Sensors and Actuators with ROS
Using Sensors and Actuators with ROS
Using a joystick or a gamepad
Using Arduino to add sensors and actuators
Using a low-cost IMU - 9 degrees of freedom
Using the IMU - Xsens MTi
Using a GPS system
Using a laser rangefinder - Hokuyo URG-04lx
Creating a launch file
Using the Kinect sensor to view objects in 3D
Using servomotors - Dynamixel
Summary
8
Computer Vision
Computer Vision
ROS camera drivers support
ROS images
OpenCV in ROS
Visualizing the camera input images with rqt_image_view
Camera calibration
The ROS image pipeline
ROS packages useful for Computer Vision tasks
Performing visual odometry with an RGBD camera
Computing the homography of two images
Summary
9
Point Clouds
Point Clouds
Understanding the PCL
My first PCL program
Segmentation
Summary
10
Working with 3D Robot Modeling in ROS
Working with 3D Robot Modeling in ROS
ROS packages for robot modeling
Understanding robot modeling using URDF
Creating the ROS package for the robot description
Creating our first URDF model
Explaining the URDF file
Visualizing the robot 3D model in RViz
Adding physical and collision properties to a URDF model
Understanding robot modeling using xacro
Conversion of xacro to URDF
Creating the robot description for a seven DOF robot manipulator
Explaining the xacro model of seven DOF arm
Creating a robot model for the differential drive mobile robot
Questions
Summary
11
Simulating Robots Using ROS and Gazebo
Simulating Robots Using ROS and Gazebo
Simulating the robotic arm using Gazebo and ROS
Questions
Summary
12
Working with Pluginlib, Nodelets, and Gazebo Plugins
Working with Pluginlib, Nodelets, and Gazebo Plugins
Understanding pluginlib
Understanding the Gazebo plugins
Questions
Summary
13
Writing ROS Controllers and Visualization Plugins
Writing ROS Controllers and Visualization Plugins
Understanding pr2_mechanism packages
Writing a basic real-time joint controller in ROS
Understanding ros_control packages
Understanding ROS visualization tool (RViz) and its plugins
Writing a RViz plugin for teleoperation
Questions
Summary
14
Interfacing I/O Boards, Sensors, and Actuators to ROS
Interfacing I/O Boards, Sensors, and Actuators to ROS
Understanding the Arduino-ROS interface
What is the Arduino-ROS interface?
Interfacing Dynamixel actuators to ROS
Questions
Summary
15
Programming Vision Sensors using ROS, Open-CV, and PCL
Programming Vision Sensors using ROS, Open-CV, and PCL
Understanding ROS - OpenCV interfacing packages
Understanding ROS - PCL interfacing packages
Interfacing USB webcams in ROS
Working with ROS camera calibration
Interfacing Kinect and Asus Xtion Pro in ROS
Interfacing Intel Real Sense camera with ROS
Interfacing Hokuyo Laser in ROS
Interfacing Velodyne LIDAR in ROS
Working with point cloud data
Streaming webcam from Odroid using ROS
Questions
Summary
16
Building and Interfacing Differential Drive Mobile Robot Hardware in ROS
Building and Interfacing Differential Drive Mobile Robot Hardware in ROS
Introduction to Chefbot- a DIY mobile robot and its hardware configuration
Questions
Summary
17
Exploring the Advanced Capabilities of ROS-MoveIt!
Exploring the Advanced Capabilities of ROS-MoveIt!
Motion planning using the move_group C++ interface
Collision checking in robot arm using MoveIt!
Working with perception using MoveIt! and Gazebo
Grasping using MoveIt!
Working with robot pick and place task using MoveIt!
Understanding Dynamixel ROS Servo controllers for robot hardware interfacing
Interfacing seven DOF Dynamixel based robotic arm to ROS MoveIt!
Questions
Summary
18
ROS for Industrial Robots
ROS for Industrial Robots
Understanding ROS-Industrial packages
Installing ROS-Industrial packages
Block diagram of ROS-Industrial packages
Creating URDF for an industrial robot
Creating MoveIt! configuration for an industrial robot
Installing ROS-Industrial packages of universal robotic arm
Understanding the Moveit! configuration of a universal robotic arm
Working with MoveIt! configuration of ABB robots
Understanding the ROS-Industrial robot support packages
ROS-Industrial robot client package
ROS-Industrial robot driver package
Understanding MoveIt! IKFast plugin
Creating the MoveIt! IKFast plugin for the ABB-IRB6640 robot
Creating the COLLADA file of a robot to work with OpenRave
Generating the IKFast CPP file for the IRB 6640 robot
Questions
Summary
19
Troubleshooting and Best Practices in ROS
Troubleshooting and Best Practices in ROS
Setting up Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 14.04.3
Setting ROS development environment in Eclipse IDE
Best practices in ROS
Best practices in the ROS package
Important troubleshooting tips in ROS
Questions
Summary
20
Face Detection and Tracking Using ROS, OpenCV and Dynamixel Servos
Face Detection and Tracking Using ROS, OpenCV and Dynamixel Servos
Overview of the project
Hardware and software prerequisites
Interfacing Dynamixel with ROS
Creating face tracker ROS packages
Working with the face-tracking ROS package
Questions
Summary
21
Building a Siri-Like Chatbot in ROS
Building a Siri-Like Chatbot in ROS
Social robots
Building social robots
Prerequisites
Getting started with AIML
Questions
Summary
22
Controlling Embedded Boards Using ROS
Controlling Embedded Boards Using ROS
Getting started with popular embedded boards
Interfacing Arduino with ROS
Questions
Summary
23
Teleoperate a Robot Using Hand Gestures
Teleoperate a Robot Using Hand Gestures
Teleoperating ROS Turtle using a keyboard
Teleoperating using hand gestures
Setting up the project
Interfacing the MPU-9250 with the Arduino and ROS
Visualizing IMU TF in Rviz
Converting IMU data into twist messages
Integration and final run
Teleoperating using an Android phone
Questions
Summary
24
Object Detection and Recognition
Object Detection and Recognition
Getting started with object detection and recognition
The find_object_2d package in ROS
Getting started with 3D object recognition
Introduction to 3D object recognition packages in ROS
Detecting and recognizing objects from 3D meshes
Recognizing objects
Questions
Summary
25
Deep Learning Using ROS and TensorFlow
Deep Learning Using ROS and TensorFlow
Introduction to deep learning and its applications
Deep learning for robotics
Deep learning libraries
Getting started with TensorFlow
Image recognition using ROS and TensorFlow
Introducing to scikit-learn
Introducing to SVM and its application in robotics
Questions
Summary
26
ROS on MATLAB and Android
ROS on MATLAB and Android
Getting started with the ROS-MATLAB interface
Setting Robotics Toolbox in MATLAB
Communicating from MATLAB to a ROS network
Controlling a ROS robot from MATLAB
Getting started with Android and its ROS interface
Installing the ROS-Android interface
Playing with ROS-Android applications
Code walkthrough
Creating basic applications using the ROS-Android interface
Questions
Summary
27
Building an Autonomous Mobile Robot
Building an Autonomous Mobile Robot
Robot specification and design overview
Designing and selecting the motors and wheels for the robot
Building 2D and 3D models of the robot body
Simulating the robot model in Gazebo
Mathematical model of a differential drive robot
Designing and building actual robot hardware
Interfacing robot hardware with ROS
Gmapping and localization in Chefbot
Questions
Summary
28
Creating a Self-Driving Car Using ROS
Creating a Self-Driving Car Using ROS
Getting started with self-driving cars
Functional block diagram of a typical self-driving car
Simulating a self-driving car with sensors in Gazebo
Interfacing a DBW car with ROS
Introducing the Udacity open source self-driving car project
Questions
Summary
29
Teleoperating a Robot Using a VR Headset and Leap Motion
Teleoperating a Robot Using a VR Headset and Leap Motion
Getting started with a VR headset and Leap Motion
Project prerequisites
Design and working of the project
Installing the Leap Motion SDK on Ubuntu 14.04.5
Visualizing Leap Motion data in Rviz
Creating a teleoperation node using the Leap Motion controller
Building a ROS-VR Android application
Working with the ROS-VR application and interfacing with Gazebo
Working with TurtleBot simulation in VR
Troubleshooting the ROS-VR application
Integrating ROS-VR application and Leap Motion teleoperation
Questions
Summary
30
Controlling Your Robots over the Web
Controlling Your Robots over the Web
Getting started with ROS web packages
Setting up ROS web packages on ROS Kinetic
Installing tf2_web_republisher on ROS Kinetic
Teleoperating and visualizing a robot on a web browser
Controlling robot joints from a web browser
Web-based speech-controlled robot
Running a speech-controlled robot application
Questions
Summary
Bibliography
Bibliography
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think
Index
Index

Important troubleshooting tips in ROS

We will look at some of the common issues when working with ROS as well as tips to solve them. One of the ROS inbuilt tools to find issues in a ROS system is roswtf. roswtf, which checks issues in following areas of ROS:

  • Environment variables and configuration issues
  • It can scan a package or meta-package to report potential issues
  • It can check a launch file for its potential issues
  • It can check system issues and online graph issues
  • It can report warnings and errors-warnings can be avoided but are not necessary, errors should be addressed

Usage of roswtf

We can check the issues inside a ROS package by simply entering the package and entering roswtf. We can also check issues in the launch file using the following command:

$ roswtf <file_name>.launch

We may get a report if there are issues associated with the package.

Figure 16: roswtf command output for a ROS package

The wiki page of roswtf is available at http://wiki.ros.org/roswtf.

The following are some of...

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