February 2010 Archives

The ROS 1.0.1 patch update has been released. This contains several patches, but no API changes. If you are using ROS 1.0.0, it is recommended to update.

Change list

• rospy: fixed bug in service generator with transitive dependencies (#2378, r8077)
• roscpp
  • Fixed bug where XmlRpcValue parameters were accidentally being cached when they shouldn't be (#2381, r8089)
  • Fixed bug where param::get()/NodeHandle::getParam() of XmlRpcValue parameters would always return true after the first call, even if the parameter didn't exist (r8091)
  • Fixed a crash on shutdown involving popping off an already-empty list (r8132)
  • Fixed bug in UDPROS XML/RPC exchange so that the subscriber receives the publisher's side of the connection header information (r8265)
• rosmake
  • Fixed log directory permissions ticket
  • Fixed typo Exception/Exceptoin (#2377)
  • more verbose error on rosdep failure
• roswtf: removed reference to netifaces, which has been disabled (r8152)
• test_msgs: reworked layout to not confuse roswtf (r8154)
• rossrv/rosmsg: fixed issue with field type resolution (r8191)
• roslaunch: better error message on unrecognized tags inside of <node> tag (r8296) and better error message if another master is running (r8309)
• rostest: creation of .ros directory fixed to use parent permissions (r8303 r8304)
• roslisp message generation: added type specifiers for fields and made them immutable. If you update to ros 1.0.1, you also need to update in the ros_experimental repository.
• rostopic: bug fix to -p option when printing empty fields
• rosgraph: better suppression of /clock when using -q option with rxgraph
• roswtf: better error message when connection to master lost during graph checks (r8420)
• rosbuild:
  • Updated download_checkmd5.py to use hashlib instead of deprecated md5 (#2385, r8128)
  • Fixed bug with cached build flags when moving packages (#2459, r8453).
• rosdep.yaml: added missing Boost packages for Ubuntu 9.04
• rosdep : improved robustness to invalid packages (#2406, r8250).

driver_common 1.0.1 and sound_drivers 1.0.3 have been released. These are patch updates and updating is recommended.

• driver_common 1.0.1
• sound_drivers 1.0.3

Change lists

• driver_common
• sound_drivers

The navigation 1.0.4 patch update has been released. This release contains minor bug fixes and patches as documented in the change list below.

Change List

• move_base_msgs
  • Messages now automatically generated from a .action file instead of being manually generated and checked in
• navfn
  • Fixed a problem where debugging information was saved all the time. This was especially troublesome on the shared install on the robot where users don't have write permissions.
  • Fixed a bug in the validPointPotential method that could cause it to return false incorrectly
• map_server
  • Changed the map_saver to use a latched topic instead of a service call to get the map.
  • Fixed a bug where the map_saver would save unknown space with a color value that did not match the threshold it wrote out to its yaml file.

Hope all is well, Eitan

Several ROS experts will be on hand to give a full day ROS tutorial at ICRA 2010 in Anchorage, Alaska. On May 7, we'll be spending the entire day teaching the ins and outs of ROS, from nodes and messages, to sensing, planning, and control. We'll be bringing a PR2 robot so that participants can get hands-on experience using existing ROS software libraries, while also learning to write new code. Exercises will be carried out both in simulation and on the robot. Whether you're a robot software developer, algorithm researcher, HRI researcher, robot competition participant, or commercial application developer, we encourage you to register and attend.

Attendees should be comfortable writing Python code, though need not be experts. Familiarity with ROS is encouraged but not required.

Important Links

• Tutorial Information
• Registration (please register for the tutorial when registering for the conference)

Topics

A preliminary list of topics that will be taught is below. See the tutorial page for schedule details and updates.

Basics

• use ROS command line tools and visualization tools
• launch, analyze, and debug distributed ROS systems
• write ROS nodes in Python
• write and use custom ROS messages

Perception

• access sensors and visualize data
• construct sensor processing pipelines

Planning and Control

• use and customize navigation for a mobile base
• use and customize motion control for an articulated arm
• build a high-level executive in Python

Simulation

• run complex robot simulations

Hardware

• control a complex mobile-manipulation platform

Organizers

• Gary Bradski, Willow Garage
• Ken Conley, Willow Garage
• Brian Gerkey, Willow Garage
• Morgan Quigley, Stanford University
• Melonee Wise, Willow Garage

We've released patch updates to several stacks with bug fixes and minor updates.

• common 1.0.2
• geometry 1.0.1
• pr2_power_drivers 1.0.2
• visualization_common 1.0.1

Change lists

• common
• geometry
• pr2_power_drivers
• visualization_common

We're pleased to announce that all of the packages within the Brown Ros Pkg collection have been updated for ROS-1.0.X compatibility. The Brown automated install script has also been updated to reflect these changes as well. This update should fix any problems caused by using the (formerly) 0.9.0 release with an updated roscore.

We encourage anyone interested to visit brown-ros-pkg . We currently have a driver for the iRobot Create, a basic driver for the Aldebaran Nao, and some basic vision packages.

Additions and improvements include:

probe

A ROS webcam capture node new to this release. Probe leverages Gstreamer, making it compatible with almost every Linux camera and video system available. In addition Gstreamer's software video processing can be used to emulate advanced features (e.g. white-balancing) even for cameras that don't have the appropriate v4l hardware support.

teleop_twist_keyboard

A simple keyboard-based teleop interface inspired by teleop_base. It's only dependencies are on the necessary geometry messages.

As always, we're interested in the communities feedback and suggestions.

_Trevor

We've released several updates of ROS stacks. Most of these new releases are patch updates to fix various issues that have been reported.

Patch releases:

• common 1.0.1
• pr2_robot 0.3.4
• pr2_ethercat_drivers 1.0.2
• joystick_drivers 1.0.1
• navigation 1.0.2
• sound_drivers 1.0.2
• pr2_power_drivers 1.0.1
• web_interface 0.3.7
• visualization 1.0.1

Updates:

• pr2_calibration 0.2.0

Change lists:

• common
• pr2_robot
• pr2_ethercat_drivers
• joystick_drivers
• navigation
• sound_drivers
• pr2_power_drivers
• web_interface
• visualization
• pr2_calibration