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

Assembling the Robot

This chapter will provide you with a variety of practical assembly guidelines about the mobile robot that the content of this book is based on. With a very practical approach in mind, we'll deep dive into the characteristics of GoPiGo3 and what makes it an ideal platform to learn robotics.

First, we will focus on the hardware and talk about the components that every robot is composed of including the mechanical parts and embedded system, sensor, and motors.

After completing the GoPiGo3 assembly section, you will be acquiring manual skills so that you can start manipulating typical components in robotics. You will also be driven to adopt a systematic approach of applying partial verification tests while assembling your robot, also known as unit tests.

After introducing the GoPiGo3 robot in the first section of this chapter, we will explain these concepts...