AVR and ROS

Announcement from Adam Stambler of Rutgers to ros-users

Hello Folks,

I am proud to announce a new tool for using Arduinos and AVR processors in ROS projects.  avr_bridge allows the AVR processors to directly publish or subscribe to ROS topics. This allows everything from Arduinos to custom robot boards to be first class ROS components.  This package can be found in Rutgers' new rutgers-ros-pkg.

avr_bridge is meant to simplify the use of an Arduino and avr processors in a ROS based robot by providing a partial ROS implementation in avr c++. In hobbyist robotics, these microcontrollers are often used to read sensors and perform low level motor control. Every time a robot needs to interface with an AVR board, a new communication system is written. Typically they all use a usb-to-serial converter and either a custom binary or text based protocol. AVR bridge replaces these custom protocols with an automatically generated ROS communication stack that allows the AVR processors to directly publish or subscribe to ROS topics.

avr_bridge has already been deployed on Rutger's PIPER robot and in the communications layer for a Sparkfun imu driver. In the next few weeks, it will be deployed on our newest robot, the Rutgers IGVC entry as the communication layer on all of our custom, low level hardware.   By using avr_bridge to communicate with our PCs, we have cut down on redundant code and simplified the driver by allowing the avr_processor to directly publish msgs.  It is our hope that by extending ROS to the 8-bit microcontroller level we will see more open-source hardware that can be quickly integrated into cheap, custom robot platforms.

Cheers,
Adam Stambler
Rutgers University