Book Image

ROS Robotics By Example, Second Edition - Second Edition

By : Carol Fairchild, Lentin Joseph, Dr. Thomas L. Harman
Book Image

ROS Robotics By Example, Second Edition - Second Edition

By: Carol Fairchild, Lentin Joseph, Dr. Thomas L. Harman

Overview of this book

ROS is a robust robotics framework that works regardless of hardware architecture or hardware origin. It standardizes most layers of robotics functionality from device drivers to process control and message passing to software package management. But apart from just plain functionality, ROS is a great platform to learn about robotics itself and to simulate, as well as actually build, your first robots. This does not mean that ROS is a platform for students and other beginners; on the contrary, ROS is used all over the robotics industry to implement flying, walking and diving robots, yet implementation is always straightforward, and never dependent on the hardware itself. ROS Robotics has been the standard introduction to ROS for potential professionals and hobbyists alike since the original edition came out; the second edition adds a gradual introduction to all the goodness available with the Kinetic Kame release. By providing you with step-by-step examples including manipulator arms and flying robots, the authors introduce you to the new features. The book is intensely practical, with space given to theory only when absolutely necessary. By the end of this book, you will have hands-on experience on controlling robots with the best possible framework.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
ROS Robotics By Example Second Edition
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
Index

Launching Baxter Simulator in Gazebo


Before launching Baxter Simulator in Gazebo, it is important to check the ROS environment variables. To start up Baxter Simulator, use the following commands to get to your Baxter catkin workspace and run your baxter.sh script with the sim parameter:

$ cd ~/baxter_ws
$ ./baxter.sh sim

The command prompt should return with the following tag appended to the beginning of the prompt:

[baxter - http://localhost:11311]

You are now talking to the simulated Baxter! At this point, check your ROS environment with the following command:

$ env | grep ROS

Within the output screen text, look for the following result:

ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311
ROS_IP= <your workstation's IP address>

or

ROS_HOSTNAME=<your workstation's hostname>

The ROS_HOSTNAME field need not be present.

If the ROS_IP or ROS_HOSTNAME environment variables does not match the IP address of your workstation (use ifconfig to check), type exit to stop communication with the simulated...