Book Image

Robot Operating System Cookbook

By : Kumar Bipin
Book Image

Robot Operating System Cookbook

By: Kumar Bipin

Overview of this book

This book will leverage the power of ROS with an introduction to its core and advanced concepts through exciting recipes. You will get acquainted with the use of different synchronous and asynchronous communication methods, including messages, services, and actions. You will learn how to use the various debugging and visualization tools used in development and how to interface sensors and actuators with the ROS framework. Firstly, you will get to grips with ROS simulation frameworks, such as Gazebo and RotorS for modeling and simulating any physical robot and virtual environment. You will also cover mobile robotics, micro-aerial vehicles, and robotic arms, which are the leading branches of robotic applications. Robot Operating System Cookbook will also guide you in the development of an autonomous navigation framework for both mobile robots and micro-aerial vehicles. Finally, you will explore ROS-Industrial, an open source project that extends the advanced capabilities of ROS software to manufacturing industries.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Understanding robot modeling using URDF

The ROS framework provides the Unified Robot Description Format (URDF), which is an XML file format that describes a robot, its geometry, its parts, its joints, physics, and so on. Whenever we use a 3D robot on ROS, for example, a mobile robot (Turtlebot), the humanoid robot (PR2), and some types of aerial robot, a set of several URDF files must be associated with them.

In the following sections, we will learn how to use the URDF file format to create a 3D model of a real-world robot for development.

Getting ready

We are going to build a mobile robot with four wheels and an arm robot with a gripper. Moreover, we can create each example program in the ROS package in our workspace individually...