From Román Navarro
Hi ROS community!
A new package for the SICK S3000 safety laser scanner is available. It's a basic driver based on the old Player/Stage driver.
Please add the Google Code repository to the index:
Best Regards,
Román Navarro
September 2012 Archives
From Roberto Guzmán of Robotnk
Hi ROS community!
A ROS stack for the SummitXL robot is available. The repository includes the necessary simulation nodes, teleoperation for different pads, and some autonomous navigation.
Please add the Google Code repository to the index:
http://code.google.com/p/summit-xl-ros-stack/
Best Regards,
Robert
From Kevin Walchko
Hello,
I would like to submit a new repository. Since the current ROS joystick drivers for the PS3 controller don't support OSX, I was able to use glfw ( a cross platform library) to build a node that publishes the sensor_msgs/Joy message.
The git repository is located: https://github.com/walchko/osx_joystick
I also documented how to connect the controller to OSX 10.8 via bluetooth. Welcome any suggestions or comments.
Kevin
A new package from Paul Bouchier
A new package: rosserial_embeddedlinux, that's part of the rosserial stack and gives embedded linux systems the ability to run ROS nodes is now available.
With the rosserial_embeddedlinux package, you can use ROS with Linux systems that don't or can't run full-blown ROS. The package provides a ROS communication protocol that works over your embedded linux system's wifi or network connection (or its serial port) and communicates with a ROS message proxy running on a native ROS system. It allows your embedded linux system to run apps that are close to full fledged ROS nodes that can publish and subscribe to ROS topics, provide services, and get the ROS system time over any of the supported connection types.
Rosserial_embeddedlinux extends the rosserial_arduino code that enabled arduino to present a ros node. It supports multiple nodes.
A description of the architecture and overview is on the wiki here: http://ros.org/wiki/rosserialembeddedlinux Tutorials including installation, and hardware-neutral and vendor-specific examples are here: http://ros.org/wiki/rosserialembeddedlinux/Tutorials
The package is general purpose, and not tied to any particular hardware vendor.
Access to the source code and bug tracker is provided on kforge here: https://kforge.ros.org/projects/rosserial/
ROS indexer maintainers, please add this package to the indexer.
Thanks to Mike Ferguson and Tully Foote for their encouragement at ROSCON to build this.
Regards
Paul Bouchier Dallas Personal Robotics Group
Cross Posted from the Open Source Robotics Foundation Blog
There's exciting news out of Boston today with the launch of Rethink Robotics's new robot. Rethink Robotics is developing a family of low cost and highly intelligent robots that can perform simple tasks in a manufacturing environment, increasing the productivity of the people around them. Rethink Robotics was founded by Rodney Brooks, former Director of the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and co-Founder of iRobot Corporation.
Rethink's robots can be taken out of the box, taught a task by anyone, and start work in a few hours, eliminating the need for systems integration. They are safe to interact with people at close range and are easy to train and retrain on the fly. They are nothing like any existing industrial robots.
While all of this is very exciting for the robotics industry, and certainly for our friends at Rethink, what we personally find most exciting is the role played by ROS in today's news. Rethink's new Baxter robot is, in the words of CEO Scott Eckert, "built upon ROS." We had some hint from Rethink's (then Heartland's) support of ROSCon 2012 that they were doing something with ROS, but we were very pleasantly surprised today to hear that ROS is such a central part of Baxter.
As ROS edges closer to its five-year anniversary, this is a great milestone for the ROS community. Rethink is actively hiring for a Senior Developer Relations Engineer with expertise in ROS, and expects that individual to play an important role as part of the ROS community.
Congratulations to everyone at Rethink Robotics, and we are looking forward to their contribution to the ROS community.
From Markus Bader on ROS Users
Hello
I like to publish a new git repository http://git.code.sf.net/p/v4lstack/code
git clone http://git.code.sf.net/p/v4lstack/code v4lstack
The repo holds a v4l camera driver (based on the luvcview program)
with a dynamic reconfigure interface.
Including reading and storing parameters, like brightness, contrast,
... and even focus if the camera supports it.
A tiny program generates the dynamic reconfigure configuration file
CameraParameters.cfg by testing all supported controls.
But still a lot of things can be enhanced, therefore I am happy to
find other developers.
Greetings
Markus
I like to publish a new git repository http://git.code.sf.net/p/
git clone http://git.code.sf.net/p/
The repo holds a v4l camera driver (based on the luvcview program)
with a dynamic reconfigure interface.
Including reading and storing parameters, like brightness, contrast,
... and even focus if the camera supports it.
A tiny program generates the dynamic reconfigure configuration file
CameraParameters.cfg by testing all supported controls.
But still a lot of things can be enhanced, therefore I am happy to
find other developers.
Greetings
Markus
ROS Industrial -- An Enabler for Industrial Robotics?
Development of Industrial Applications with ROS -- Experiences
October 17, 2012
The integration of hardware and software components into new automation applications is still a big challenge regarding interface adaptations, communication, conduction of components and integration tests as well as optimization of parameters for the target scenario. In addition, applications in the automation domain are often developed from scratch with only limited software reuse.
Using component-based development in combination with reuse of existing software and hardware components promises a significant improvement in efficiency for application development.
A prominent example for a widely used component-based framework is ROS, which focuses on code reuse in robotics research and development and offers already great variety of mature robotic soft - ware components (e.g. SLAM, motion planning, 2D/3D perception).
In this conference methods and procedures for the component based development with ROS are presented that increase the reusability of existing components. Furthermore, the ROS Industrial initiative is introduced that matches existing ROS components to the needs of industrial applications (e.g. quality assurance, robust - ness, etc.). Concrete examples how ROS is already used in industrial applications today are given in the conference.
We are looking forward to welcome you at Fraunhofer IPA at our conference.
OBJECTIVES
In this conference we want to bring together representatives from academia and industry to exchange experiences on application development with ROS and clarify the needs of industry with respect to ROS Industrial. The participants have the opportunity to get information on the starting initiative of ROS Industrial and generate and influence the goals, timelines and development priorities of the community development.
Conference Topics:
- Presentation of methods and procedures of component-based development with ROS
- Introduction of the ROS Industrial initiative
- Examples of successful technology transfer from academia to industrial applications
- ROS for product development
TARGET AUDIENCE
This conference addresses developers of industrial robotic appli - cations, system integrators and executive personal of small and medium-sizeed enterprises as well as R&D division of larger companies in the field of automation, logistics and production.
Full details are available in the PDF Flyer
Continue reading Fraunhofer IPA Announces a ROS Industrial Workshop.
From Kevin Hallenbeck on ROS Users
source (hg) https://bitbucket.org/
wiki http://ros.org/wiki/ueye
Thanks,
Kevin Hallenbeck
From AISoy Robotics
Hi Everybody,
We are proud to announce the new ROS repository of AISoy Robotics.
The current version contains packages to interact with the AISoy1 robot using its original API through ROS. Further developments are already in preparation: e.g. simulation of AISoy1 in Gazebo, packages for the mobile platform (botmovil) used by AISoy1 to let him move around and its simulation model, and many other.
We will publish them very soon, so stay tuned for more!
Best regards,
The AISoy Robotics staff.
From Nicolas Lauzier of Robotiq on ROS Users
Hi everyone,
I am pleased to announce that a ROS stack for the control of our Adaptive Robot Grippers is now available. The stack is released as part of ROS-Industrial, hosted on the SWRI repository.
The Robotiq stack provides drivers for accessing the control variables of our Grippers (TCP/IP protocol only for the moment), allowing ROS users to program high-level commands without having to handle low-level message creations and communication aspects. The objective of the stack is to reduce the integration time and help our research partners build innovative demos (such as this one).
For more information on the Robotiq stack, you can take a look at our blog article announcing the release and our website section presenting the research applications for our Adaptive Grippers.
Enjoy!
From Russell Toris on ROS Users
Dear ROS Community:
I would like to take a moment to announce the early-release version of the Robot Management System (RMS). RMS (Robot Management System) is a remote lab management tool designed for use with controlling ROS enabled robots from the web. RMS itself refers to a web-management system written in PHP/HTML backed by a MySQL database. RMS is written in a robot-platform independent manner allowing for the control of a variety of robots. In addition to being cross-platform, RMS allows for basic user management, interface management, and content management. RMS is broken up into two separate stacks on ROS.org:
Who Should Use the RMS?
RMS was designed to be an easy to use, easy to mange remote lab system for use by robotic researchers and enthusiasts. Developed in PHP/HTML with a MySQL backend, the RMS itself is not considered a light-weight system; however, by using a heavier system, tools such as user management, content management, and interface management become possible.
Does the RMS Itself Require ROS to Install?
No. The RMS was designed as a standalone system that can be easily installed on UNIX based web servers. The decision was made so that it is possible to host the RMS site itself on campus or third-party web servers without the need of maintaining and installing ROS on that server. RMS will point to ROS servers which are running rosbridge v2.0 in order to control the robot.
How Does the RMS Communicate with ROS?
The RMS uses the lastest version of ros.js to communicate with ROS servers. For the ROS server to communicate back to the RMS, a server running rosbridge v2.0 should be running.
Cool Widgets! Do I Need RMS to Use Them?
No. Most of the widgets available in the system were developed as standalone widgets as part of the rosjs effort. The RMS admin panel simply wraps these widgets and provides an easy-to-use GUI to customize them to fit your needs.
Is There More to Come?
Yes! The current released version of RMS is a very early-stage release of the system. The following are just a few of the features we hope to add soon:
RMS is being released in its early stages in hopes of receiving feedback early in its developments to help shape the future of the system. That being said, the current release is stable and ready for use! Frequent updates will be made and documented on its ROS.org wiki pages: http://www.ros.org/wiki/rms_www and http://www.ros.org/wiki/rms
Cheers,
Russell Toris
I would like to take a moment to announce the early-release version of the Robot Management System (RMS). RMS (Robot Management System) is a remote lab management tool designed for use with controlling ROS enabled robots from the web. RMS itself refers to a web-management system written in PHP/HTML backed by a MySQL database. RMS is written in a robot-platform independent manner allowing for the control of a variety of robots. In addition to being cross-platform, RMS allows for basic user management, interface management, and content management. RMS is broken up into two separate stacks on ROS.org:
- rms_www contains the web server code for the RMS and comes with a detailed installation tutorial -- http://www.ros.org/wiki/rms_
www - rms contains server side (ROS-side) code such as example simulation environments. As of this email, example simulation environments are available for the Kuka youBot and PR2. In addition, example launch files are provided for the WowWee Rovio and Kuka youBot for control of physical robots. PR2 examples are soon to follow. -- http://www.ros.org/wiki/rms
Who Should Use the RMS?
RMS was designed to be an easy to use, easy to mange remote lab system for use by robotic researchers and enthusiasts. Developed in PHP/HTML with a MySQL backend, the RMS itself is not considered a light-weight system; however, by using a heavier system, tools such as user management, content management, and interface management become possible.
Does the RMS Itself Require ROS to Install?
No. The RMS was designed as a standalone system that can be easily installed on UNIX based web servers. The decision was made so that it is possible to host the RMS site itself on campus or third-party web servers without the need of maintaining and installing ROS on that server. RMS will point to ROS servers which are running rosbridge v2.0 in order to control the robot.
How Does the RMS Communicate with ROS?
The RMS uses the lastest version of ros.js to communicate with ROS servers. For the ROS server to communicate back to the RMS, a server running rosbridge v2.0 should be running.
Cool Widgets! Do I Need RMS to Use Them?
No. Most of the widgets available in the system were developed as standalone widgets as part of the rosjs effort. The RMS admin panel simply wraps these widgets and provides an easy-to-use GUI to customize them to fit your needs.
Is There More to Come?
Yes! The current released version of RMS is a very early-stage release of the system. The following are just a few of the features we hope to add soon:
- User scheduling for environments/interfaces
- 2 examples and navigation widgets
- 3D Interactive Widgets
- Additional, more complex, interface examples
- Additional tutorials
- Much more!
RMS is being released in its early stages in hopes of receiving feedback early in its developments to help shape the future of the system. That being said, the current release is stable and ready for use! Frequent updates will be made and documented on its ROS.org wiki pages: http://www.ros.org/wiki/rms_
Cheers,
Russell Toris
From Patrick Goebel on the ROS Users Mailing List
Hello ROS Fans,
I have written a little book called ROS By Example. The book is aimed at new ROS users who want to go beyond the Beginner Tutorials and create some working ROS applications, either in simulation or on a real robot like the TurtleBot. The book provides step-by-step explanations of a number of ROS programming examples using code that can be downloaded from the accompanying ros-by-example repository. You can see a preview of the book including the table of contents on the ROS By Example web page.
There are some important caveats if you are considering getting the book:
- The companion code is written for ROS Electric, not Fuerte.
- I have tested the code under Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.10 but not 12.04 since Debian packages are not available for ROS Electric under 12.04.
- The book assumes the reader has done at least the Beginner Tutorials on the ROS Wiki. It also assumes at least a one-time reading of the TF tutorials. In fact, there are a lot of links in the book that point back to the Wiki but this is all in the spirit of not reinventing the wheel.
- The code samples are written in Python, not C++ so if you don't like Python, this book probably isn't for you!
- A print version of the book will be coming soon (hopefully in the next week or two) but I think the PDF version will probably be more useful to most folks.
--patrick
From Ivan Dryanovski at CCNY
Hi everyone,
We have put together a small stack with IMU-related tools, available here:
http://www.ros.org/wiki/imu_tools
The stack contains two packages:
rviz_imu_plugin - A plugin for rviz which visualizes IMU messages, displaying sensor orientation and acceleration.
imu_filter_madgwick - a general-purpose filter which fuses angular velocities, linear accelerations, and (optionally) magnetic field readings into an orientation quaternion. We've tested this with a Phidgets Spatial 3/3/3 IMU sensor (phidgets stack also coming soon).
More info is available at the wiki pages. As always, we welcome any feedback and suggestions.
Cheers,
Ivan
