ROS by Examples For ROS Indigo. Packages and Programs for Advanced Robot Behaviors. Volume 2

466 Pages·2016·16.9 MB·English

by  Patrick Goebel

ROS By Example
V 2
OLUME
P P
ACKAGES AND ROGRAMS FOR
A R B
DVANCED OBOT EHAVIORS
A P R P
I OBOT RODUCTION
R. P G
ATRICK OEBEL
Version 1.1.0
For ROS Indigo

ROS BY EXAMPLE. Copyright © 2014 by R. Patrick Goebel
All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the
copyright owner and the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-312-39266-3
Version 1.1.0 for ROS Indigo: July 2015
Products and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their
respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a
trademark name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit
of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Information contained in this work (Paperback or eBook) has been obtained from
sources believed to be reliable. However, the author does not guarantee the accuracy or
completeness of any information contained in it, and the author shall not be responsible
for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by the information published herein. This work is published with the
understanding that the author is supplying information but is not attempting to render
professional services. This product almost certainly contains errors. It is your
responsibility to examine, verify, test, and determine the appropriateness of use, or
request the assistance of an appropriate professional to do so.

P
REFACE
In February 2013, ROS stewardship was transferred from Willow Garage to the Open
Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF). The stated mission of OSRF is "to support the
development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for use in robotics
research, education, and product development." The two major projects overseen by
OSRF are ROS and Gazebo, the advanced 3D robot simulator.
New ROS packages continue to be released on a regular basis by individuals and groups
working in both university labs and the robotics industry. Interest in learning ROS
continues to grow, and the popularity of ROS By Example Volume 1 has exceeded my
expectations. Yet going beyond the basics still requires a fairly steep learning curve and
realistic examples dealing with more advanced topics are not always easy to find.
The overall goal of Volume 2 is to introduce a collection of ROS packages and tools that
are essential for programming truly autonomous robots. This includes the use of
executive task managers like SMACH and Behavior Trees, creating custom URDF
models for different robots, monitoring the health of the robot using ROS diagnostics,
multiplexing control inputs and assigning priorities, controlling a multi-jointed arm for
reaching and grasping, monitoring and controlling the robot through a web browser, and
performing realistic simulations using Gazebo. When we are finished, you will have the
tools necessary to program an "always on" robot that can monitor its own subsystems
and perform a series of tasks without human intervention.
Please note that the code in this book is written for ROS Indigo. While some of it might
work on earlier versions of ROS, it is highly recommended that the reader use ROS
Indigo with this book.

P PDF V B
RINTED VS ERSIONS OF THE OOK
The printed and PDF versions of this book are nearly the same with a few important
differences. The page formatting is identical but most PDF readers start page
numbering from the first page and ignore what is set by the document itself. Images and
code syntax are in color in the PDF version but grayscale in the printed version to keep
the cost reasonable. The PDF version is full of clickable links to other resources on the
Web. In the printed version, these links appear as underlined text with a numbered
superscript. The expanded URLs are then listed as endnotes at the end of the book.
Staying Up-To-Date: If you'd like to ask questions about the book or the sample code,
or receive notifications regarding updates and bug fixes, please join the ros-by-example
Google Group.