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

Summary


In this chapter, we described a real and popular robot called Baxter, manufactured by Rethink Robotics Corporation. Many of the details of the robot can be discovered using Baxter Simulator, which displays a simulated Baxter using the Gazebo program. Since Baxter has two movable arms, much of the chapter describes the arms and control of them.

The chapter started with a description of Baxter in both the research and the manufacturing versions. Baxter's arms and sensors and the control modes for the arms were described.

After downloading the Baxter Simulator software, the simulator was used to demonstrate various examples of controlling Baxter with Python scripts supplied by Rethink Robotics. Baxter can be controlled using ROS commands, a keyboard, or a joystick. We have also included several Python scripts that will make the control of Baxter easier if joint angles are specified for the movement of the arms.

The ROS frame transform package tf was used to show the relationship between...