Book Image

Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming, Third edition - Third Edition

By : Lentin Joseph, Jonathan Cacace
Book Image

Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming, Third edition - Third Edition

By: Lentin Joseph, Jonathan Cacace

Overview of this book

The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a software framework used for programming complex robots. ROS enables you to develop software for building complex robots without writing code from scratch, saving valuable development time. Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming provides complete coverage of the advanced concepts using easy-to-understand, practical examples and step-by-step explanations of essential concepts that you can apply to your ROS robotics projects. The book begins by helping you get to grips with the basic concepts necessary for programming robots with ROS. You'll then discover how to develop a robot simulation, as well as an actual robot, and understand how to apply high-level capabilities such as navigation and manipulation from scratch. As you advance, you'll learn how to create ROS controllers and plugins and explore ROS's industrial applications and how it interacts with aerial robots. Finally, you'll discover best practices and methods for working with ROS efficiently. By the end of this ROS book, you'll have learned how to create various applications in ROS and build your first ROS robot.

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Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Code in Action
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Share Your Thoughts
1
Section 1 – ROS Programming Essentials
Section 1 – ROS Programming Essentials
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Introduction to ROS
Chapter 1: Introduction to ROS
Technical requirements
Why should we use ROS?
Understanding the ROS filesystem level
Understanding the ROS computation graph level
ROS community level
Prerequisites for starting with ROS
Summary
Questions
3
Chapter 2: Getting Started with ROS Programming
Chapter 2: Getting Started with ROS Programming
Technical requirements
Creating a ROS package
Adding custom .msg and .srv files
Working with ROS services
Creating launch files
Applications of topics, services, and actionlib
Summary
Questions
4
Section 2 – ROS Robot Simulation
Section 2 – ROS Robot Simulation
5
Chapter 3: Working with ROS for 3D Modeling
Chapter 3: Working with ROS for 3D Modeling
Technical requirements
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 3D robot model in RViz
Adding physical and collision properties to a URDF model
Understanding robot modeling using xacro
Converting xacro to URDF
Creating the robot description for a seven-DOF robot manipulator
Explaining the xacro model of the seven-DOF arm
Creating a robot model for the differential drive mobile robot
Summary
Questions
6
Chapter 4: Simulating Robots Using ROS and Gazebo
Chapter 4: Simulating Robots Using ROS and Gazebo
Technical requirements
Simulating the robotic arm using Gazebo and ROS
Creating the robotic arm simulation model for Gazebo
Adding the gazebo_ros_control plugin
Simulating the robotic arm with Xtion Pro
Moving the robot joints using ROS controllers in Gazebo
Simulating a differential wheeled robot in Gazebo
Adding the ROS teleop node
Questions
Summary
7
Chapter 5: Simulating Robots Using ROS, CoppeliaSim, and Webots
Chapter 5: Simulating Robots Using ROS, CoppeliaSim, and Webots
Technical requirements
Setting up CoppeliaSim with ROS
Simulating a robotic arm using CoppeliaSim and ROS
Setting up Webots with ROS
Writing your first controller
Writing a teleop node using webots_ros
Summary
Questions
8
Chapter 6: Using the ROS MoveIt! and Navigation Stack
Chapter 6: Using the ROS MoveIt! and Navigation Stack
Technical requirements
The MoveIt! architecture
Generating a MoveIt! configuration package using the Setup Assistant tool
Motion planning of a robot in RViz using the MoveIt! configuration package
Understanding the ROS Navigation stack
Building a map using SLAM
Summary
Questions
9
Chapter 7: Exploring the Advanced Capabilities of ROS MoveIt!
Chapter 7: Exploring the Advanced Capabilities of ROS MoveIt!
Technical requirements
Motion planning using the move_group C++ interface
Working with perception using MoveIt! and Gazebo
Performing object manipulation with MoveIt!
Understanding DYNAMIXEL ROS servo controllers for robot hardware interfacing
Interfacing a 7-DOF DYNAMIXEL-based robotic arm with ROS MoveIt!
Summary
Questions
10
Chapter 8: ROS for Aerial Robots
Chapter 8: ROS for Aerial Robots
Technical requirements
Using aerial robots
Using the PX4 flight control stack
PC/autopilot communication
Writing a ROS-PX4 application
Using the RotorS simulation framework
Summary
Questions
11
Section 3 – ROS Robot Hardware Prototyping
Section 3 – ROS Robot Hardware Prototyping
12
Chapter 9: Interfacing I/O Board Sensors and Actuators to ROS
Chapter 9: Interfacing I/O Board Sensors and Actuators to ROS
Technical requirements:
Understanding the Arduino-ROS interface
What is the Arduino-ROS interface?
Interfacing non-Arduino boards to ROS
Interfacing DYNAMIXEL actuators to ROS
Summary
Questions
13
Chapter 10: Programming Vision Sensors Using ROS, OpenCV, and PCL
Chapter 10: Programming Vision Sensors Using ROS, OpenCV, and PCL
Technical requirements
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 with ROS
Interfacing the Intel RealSense camera with ROS
Interfacing Hokuyo lasers with ROS
Working with point cloud data
Summary
Questions
14
Chapter 11: Building and Interfacing Differential Drive Mobile Robot Hardware in ROS
Chapter 11: Building and Interfacing Differential Drive Mobile Robot Hardware in ROS
Technical requirements
Introduction to the Remo robot – a DIY autonomous mobile robot
Developing a low-level controller and a high-level ROS Control hardware interface for a differential drive robot
Configuring and working with the Navigation Stack
Summary
Questions
15
Section 4 – Advanced ROS Programming
Section 4 – Advanced ROS Programming
16
Chapter 12: Working with pluginlib, nodelets, and Gazebo Plugins
Chapter 12: Working with pluginlib, nodelets, and Gazebo Plugins
Technical requirements
Understanding pluginlib
Understanding ROS nodelets
Understanding and creating a Gazebo plugin
Summary
Questions
17
Chapter 13: Writing ROS Controllers and Visualization Plugins
Chapter 13: Writing ROS Controllers and Visualization Plugins
Technical requirements
Understanding ros_control packages
Writing a basic joint controller in ROS
Understanding the RViz tool and its plugins
Writing an RViz plugin for teleoperation
Summary
Questions
18
Chapter 14: Using ROS in MATLAB and Simulink
Chapter 14: Using ROS in MATLAB and Simulink
Technical requirements
Getting started with MATLAB
Getting started with ROS Toolbox and MATLAB
Developing a robotic application using MATLAB and Gazebo
Getting started with ROS and Simulink
Developing a simple control system in Simulink
Summary
Questions
19
Chapter 15: ROS for Industrial Robots
Chapter 15: ROS for Industrial Robots
Technical requirements
Understanding ROS-Industrial packages
Goals of ROS-Industrial
ROS-Industrial – a brief history
Installing ROS-Industrial packages
Creating a URDF for an industrial robot
Creating the MoveIt configuration for an industrial robot
Updating the MoveIt configuration files
Installing ROS-Industrial packages for Universal Robots arms
Installing the ROS interface for Universal Robots
Understanding the MoveIt configuration of a Universal Robots arm
Getting started with real Universal Robots hardware and ROS-I
Working with MoveIt configuration for ABB robots
Understanding the ROS-Industrial robot support packages
The ROS-Industrial robot client package
Designing industrial robot client nodes
The ROS-Industrial robot driver package
Understanding the MoveIt IKFast plugin
Creating the MoveIt IKFast plugin for the ABB IRB 6640 robot
The OpenRave and IKFast modules
Creating the COLLADA file of a robot to work with OpenRave
Generating the IKFast CPP file for the IRB 6640 robot
Creating the MoveIt IKFast plugin
Summary
Questions
20
Chapter 16: Troubleshooting and Best Practices in ROS
Chapter 16: Troubleshooting and Best Practices in ROS
Setting up Visual Studio Code with ROS
Best practices in ROS
Best coding practices for the ROS package
Important troubleshooting tips in ROS
Summary
Questions
Why subscribe?
21
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Understanding robot modeling using xacro

The flexibility of URDF reduces when we work with complex robot models. Some of the main features that URDF is missing include simplicity, reusability, modularity, and programmability.

If someone wants to reuse a URDF block 10 times in their robot description, they can copy and paste the block 10 times. If there is an option to use this code block and make multiple copies with different settings, it will be very useful while creating the robot description.

The URDF is a single file and we can't include other URDF files inside it. This reduces the modular nature of the code. All code should be in a single file, which reduces the code's simplicity.

Also, if there is some programmability, such as adding variables, constants, mathematical expressions, and conditional statements in the description language, it will be more user-friendly.

Robot modeling using xacro meets all of these conditions. Some of the main features of xacro...

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