ROS Monday Archives - Page 2 of 2

ROS Monday Vol.2 – Robotics Development in times of COVID-19

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Hard times we are living now. Confined at home, far from our loved robots.

You may not be able to access your real robot right now, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t keep programming it. If your robot is ROS based, you are lucky because you can create the robot software from home, testing it using a robot simulation. Getting it ready for better times.

Simulations are not loved by roboticists. We do prefer a real robot. But in some situations, simulations reveal as the best option for development. For example, training under reinforcement learning processes. Or testing before pushing to the real hardware.

I believe that now, our best option is to test on the simulation. What else can we do? Watch Netflix until the end?

If you are not usually testing your robot software on a simulation, follow the next steps to set up your simulation environment:

If you don’t have a simulation of your robot, you will need to start building it. If you don’t know how, check this series of videos teaching you the basics of Gazebo.
Remember: create the model of your robot using URDF format, but create the model of the world using SDF format.
If you created your robot mechanical model in Solidworks, you can save some time in the creation of the URDF by exporting directly from Solidworks into URDF. This video shows how to do it.
If you need to create the URDF from scratch, then I recommend you our online course to learn how URDF works.
If you are working with complex simulations that require special environments with fluids or aerodynamics, check this small series of videos: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
At any point, check the official documentation of Gazebo for additional information.
If you have questions, join the ROS Study Group chat at Discord. There you will find hundreds of other ROS Developers which may help you on the spot with your doubts.

Go and start testing your code on the simulation. Maybe, with this experience, you will discover a faster way to develop for robots.

Keep pushing your ROS development. And stay safe.

Ricardo Tellez

ROS Monday Vol.1 – Being a ROS Developer: what it takes

Is, knowing ROS, enough to become a ROS Developer?

I was thinking about this question while I was publishing my last podcast, the one with the ROS Basics Knowledge Map. In that podcast, I provided a complete landscape of all the ROS concepts that anybody needs to master to become a ROS Developer. But… is it all about learning and understanding ROS concepts?

I don’t think so. Actually, learning the ROS concepts is just the tip of the iceberg in the path to become a ROS Developer. As it happens with learning any other programming language, becoming a ROS Developer requires experience.

You can know to the detail the whole ROS API, CLI and list of available packages, but if you are lacking experience in real usage of ROS, then you are lacking the most important part.

Most of you will already recognize how difficult it is to put a ROS system into work. Yes, I know, conceptually it is very clear that you should launch this package, publish that topic and compute that value from odometry. But when we put hands to the work, many problems arise. There it comes the ability to resolve ROS errors. To debug. And that, that skill, is what I think really differentiates a ROS Developer from a ROS learner.

You may forget how to create a topic. You may forget how to add a remap in your launch files. But if you really understand how to debug ROS programs, then, that is the moment you can call yourself a ROS Developer.

Learning to debug ROS errors only comes with practice. So start practicing now. Start a ROS project for your drone. Make a simulated robot perform a complex task in a simulated environment. Or create an example to teach ROS to your mates. Trying to do any of those projects will generate lots of errors that you will have to debug. Practice, practice, practice.

And if you don’t know which project to launch, check this series of ROS Debug Challenges we created some months ago to test your debugging skills.

Now go to practice!

ROS Monday Vol.2 – Robotics Development in times of COVID-19

ROS Monday Vol.1 – Being a ROS Developer: what it takes

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