Book Image

Hands-On ROS for Robotics Programming

By : Bernardo Ronquillo Japón
Book Image

Hands-On ROS for Robotics Programming

By: Bernardo Ronquillo Japón

Overview of this book

Connecting a physical robot to a robot simulation using the Robot Operating System (ROS) infrastructure is one of the most common challenges faced by ROS engineers. With this book, you'll learn how to simulate a robot in a virtual environment and achieve desired behavior in equivalent real-world scenarios. This book starts with an introduction to GoPiGo3 and the sensors and actuators with which it is equipped. You'll then work with GoPiGo3's digital twin by creating a 3D model from scratch and running a simulation in ROS using Gazebo. Next, the book will show you how to use GoPiGo3 to build and run an autonomous mobile robot that is aware of its surroundings. Finally, you'll find out how a robot can learn tasks that have not been programmed in the code but are acquired by observing its environment. You'll even cover topics such as deep learning and reinforcement learning. By the end of this robot programming book, you'll be well-versed with the basics of building specific-purpose applications in robotics and developing highly intelligent autonomous robots from scratch.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Physical Robot Assembly and Testing
5
Section 2: Robot Simulation with Gazebo
8
Section 3: Autonomous Navigation Using SLAM
13
Section 4: Adaptive Robot Behavior Using Machine Learning

Virtual SLAM and Navigation Using Gazebo

In this chapter, you will be introduced to the concepts and components of robot navigation. Using SLAM (short for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) techniques, you will be able to execute autonomous navigation with GoPiGo3. This chapter deals with advanced topics in simulation. Hence, it is essential that you have understood the concepts of the previous chapter, where we gave you the basics to interact with a virtual robot in Gazebo.

SLAM is a technique used in robotics to explore and map an unknown environment while estimating the pose of the robot itself. As it moves all around, it will be acquiring structured information of the surroundings by processing the raw data coming from its sensors.

You will explore this concept with a practical approach using the digital twin of GoPiGo3, neatly understanding why a SLAM implementation is...