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ROS_Workshop_ITECH2020

Introduction

Dear participants, I am defining some basic requirments that I need you to fullfil before the workshop as well as some basic questions I need you to answer. Like that I will be hopefully able to prepare the right content for you. ROS is very powerful and very flexible although it is of course not a golden bullet. It gives you a basic communication framework and it has a lot of packages that will make your life easy. Some of the packages we will cover during the workshop (I am open to suggestions). Please try to prepare a problem or project (your thesis, seminar project etc.) for which you would like to use ROS for. Some examples:

  • I would like my robot swarm to be able to communicate their position to each other.
  • I want to collect a sensor data from numerous different sensors and interprent the data.
  • I want to be able to communicate with a KUKA arm and visualize its position in a Unity app.

The workshop will be divided into three parts:

  1. I will summarize the basic ROS functionalit in a short presentatins and we will go over your problems and questions that arised during your preparation.
  2. We will write some simple ROS nodes together and go over a communication with some common hardware and software platforms (Grasshopper, Arduino, Unity etc.)
  3. We will go over your projects and try to develop a solution for your problems (or at least I will try to point you in a right direction)

Questionaire

You can work in groups during the workshop but I need you to answer the following questions on your own (be honest please):

How well do you know python?

  1. I know that python is a kind of snake
  2. I tried to do some scripting in Rhino but it is not my thing
  3. I am comfortable using Python for handling geometry in Rhino/Grasshopper
  4. I am writing basic scripts using external libraries even outside Rhino/Grasshopper environment
  5. I know how Python works, I know the ups and downs of python interpreter and I know when to use egg, spam and ham.

Can you work with Unix-like OS (OS X, GNU/Linux, etc.)?

  1. Unix who?? OS what?
  2. I know GNU/Linux or OS X but I've never really worked with it.
  3. I am used to work with Unix-like OS but I rarelly interface with the system through the terminal.
  4. I am using Unix-like OS regularly as my dev environment.
  5. I know that GNU's not unix and I know how to exit Vim. In fact I am using Windows only because I have to.

Are you a good programer?

  1. Nope sorry. My experties lies somewhere else.
  2. I am ok with writing simple programs and scripts I guess.
  3. I know quite well at least one programing language and I know how to write a proper object oriented program.
  4. I know several programing languages and I know how when to use which. Most of the common design patterns are known to me.
  5. I am well respected on stack overflow. Nuff said.

What platforms I want to use with ROS? (you can specify up to three of them)

  1. Grasshopper
  2. Arduino
  3. Raspberry Pi
  4. Unity
  5. KUKA
  6. Other (specify)

Please send the projects proposals and answers to me as soon as possible.

Prerequisites

The preferred setup is the one I will be using during the workshop on my computer. If you want to use some other setup (Raspberry Pi, differen GNU/Linux flavor etc.) you are welcome to do so but don't expect my support if things don't work as they should.

Install ROS

  1. Install the newest version of Oracle's VirtualBox for your host including the extension pack: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch02.html
  2. Install the latest Ubuntu LTS version (Bionic Beaver): https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
  3. Install the latest Desktop-Full ROS LTS version (Melodic Morenia). Don't be scared if you don't understand the process completely, just copy paste the commands in the terminal: http://wiki.ros.org/melodic/Installation/Ubuntu
  4. Create ROS workspace: http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/InstallingandConfiguringROSEnvironment#Create_a_ROS_Workspace
  5. Install catkin_tools: https://catkin-tools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installing.html

Install Visual Studio Code:

  1. Install VSCode for Ubuntu from a .deb package (substitute the .deb with the actual name of the deb package that you downloaded): https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux
  2. Open VSCode and install the following extensions (how to install extensions: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/extension-gallery):

Additional linux packages and setup: vim, screen, python-pip, ros-melodic-rosserial-arduino sudo pip install virtualenv mkdir ~/.virtualenvs

Reading list

Mandatory:

  1. M. Quigley et al., “ROS: an open-source Robot Operating System,” ICRA Work. open source Softw., vol. 3, no. 3.2, p. 5, 2009.
  2. J. M. O’Kane, A gentle introduction to ROS, no. 2.1.3. 2016.

Optional:

  1. E. Gamma, R. Helm, R. Johnson, and J. Vlissides, Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Addison-Wesley, 1994.
    • On a second thought this book is a bit too complex and require some knowledge of programing.

Online:

  1. ROS Tutorial page: http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials

Uderstand the following terms:

  • client-server model
  • peer-to-peer model
  • publisher-subscriber messaging pattern
  • request-reply messaging pattern