Learning ROS for Robotics Programming: Your One-stop Guide to the Robot Operating System - Softcover

Fernández, Enrique; Crespo, Luis Sanchez; Mahtani, Anil; Martinez, Aaron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783987588 ISBN 13: 9781783987580

Publisher: Packt Pub Ltd, 2015

Synopsis

Your one-stop guide to the Robot Operating System

About This Book

• Model your robot on a virtual world and learn how to simulate it
• Create, visualize, and process Point Cloud information
• Easy-to-follow, practical tutorials to program your own robots

Who This Book Is For

In order to make the most of the book, you should have a C++ programming background, knowledge of GNU/Linux systems, and general skills in computer science. No previous background in ROS is required, as this book takes you from the ground up.

What You Will Learn

• Install a complete ROS Hydro system
• Create ROS packages and metapackages, using and debugging them in real time
• Build, handle, and debug ROS nodes
• Design your 3D robot model and simulate it in a virtual environment within Gazebo
• Generate and adapt the navigation stack to work with your robot
• Integrate different sensors such as Range Laser, Arduino, and Kinect with your robot
• Visualize and process Point Cloud information from different sensors
• Control and plan the motion of robotic arms with multiple joints using MoveIt!

In Detail

Starting at an introductory level, this book is a comprehensive guide to the fascinating world of robotics, covering sensor integration, modeling, simulation, computer vision, navigation algorithms, and more. You will then go on to explore concepts such as topics, messages, and nodes. Next, you will learn how to make your robot see with HD cameras, or navigate obstacles with range sensors.

What's new in this updated edition? First and foremost, we are going to work with ROS Hydro this time around. You will learn how to create, visualize, and process point cloud information from different sensors. This edition will also show you how to control and plan the motion of robotic arms with multiple joints using MoveIt!

About this title

About the Author

Enrique Fernandez

Enrique Fernandez has a PhD in computer engineering from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and is a senior robotics engineer currently working at Clearpath Robotics, Inc. He did his MSc master's thesis in 2009 on SLAM. Enrique addresses the problem of path planning for autonomous underwater gliders (AUGs) in his PhD thesis, which was presented in 2013. During that period, he also worked on Computer Vision, AI, and other robotics topics, such as inertial navigation systems and Visual SLAM at the CIRS/ViCOROB Research Lab of the University of Girona for AUVs. He also participated in the Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge, Europe (SAUC-E) in 2012 and collaborated in the 2013 edition; in the 2012 edition, he was awarded a prize. After his PhD, Enrique joined PAL Robotics in June 2013 as a senior robotics engineer in the Autonomous Navigation department. There, he developed software for REEM, REEM-C, and mobile-based robots and also for corresponding projects, such as Stockbot, using the ROS framework intensively. He worked on motion planning (path planning and control for mobile robots), robot localization, and SLAM. Recently, in 2015, he joined Clearpath Robotics, Inc. to work as a senior autonomy developer on SLAM, within the Autonomy department. From an academic perspective, Enrique has published several conference papers and publications, two of them on the International Conference of Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in 2011. He is also an author of chapters of a few books and a previous book about ROS, Learning ROS for Robotics Programming by Packt Publishing. His MSc master's thesis was about the FastSLAM algorithm for indoor robots using a SICK laser scanner and the wheel odometry of a Pioneer differential platform. His PhD thesis contributed path planning algorithms and tools for AUGs. He also has experience with electronics and embedded systems such as PC104 and Arduino. His background covers SLAM, Computer Vision, path planning, optimization, and robotics and artificial intelligence in general.

Edition details

• Publisher: Packt Pub Ltd
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1783987588
• ISBN 13: 9781783987580
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 423