The Robotic Operating System

In this class, we are going to be using the Robotic Operating System (ROS). ROS is a sophisticated and open source framework of software libraries, simulators, and development tools that help us to more quickly and effectively build robot systems. Why are we learning ROS? Well, ROS has become the de-facto standard for the robotics community and is one of the enablers of the current robotic revolution, so what we learn in this class (a small portion of ROS) will be valuable regardless of what direction your future takes you. Other reason to use ROS is that you will join an active community that constantly invents new robots (in the hundreds), provides new packages to cover the latest emerging algorithms and paradigms, and give us tons of documentation, answers, and support (tens of thousands of contributors!). Take a look at the wide range of robots that use ROS below (or the whole list):

Learning Objectives

This lab aims to teach you how to:

• Install a virtual machine that includes ROS.
• Run basic ROS commands on a virtual machine.

Getting a Machine with ROS

ROS is mainly developed on Linux-Ubuntu. We will, therefore, need you to install a virtual machine that will allow you to access Linux and start developing in ROS. This class has provided a virtual machine with everything you need to get started. To set up the virtual machine, we need you to install Oracle Virtual Box. Virtual Box is a software that allows us to run virtual machines on top of multiple platforms like Windows and Mac OS.

Installing Virtual Box:

To install Virtual Box start by selecting your current operating system from the link below:

• Windows hosts
• OS X hosts

This will download the install file. Click the install file and follow the prompts until Virtual Box has been successfully installed.

If everything was successful you should see a screen similar to the one below:

Downloading the Virtual Machine:

We are now going to download and install the virtual machine provided for this class. Start by downloading the virtual machine.

• Virtual Machine Download

Once you have downloaded the virtual machine. In virtual box click File->Import Appliance->(Select robotclass_base.ova)->Next. You will then see a screen like this:

Change the following settings to match your computer specifications:

• CPU: Recommend 2 Cores
• RAM: Recommend 2gigs

Note: If you have a more powerful computer, feel free to increase these values. When you are done click Import and wait for the setup to complete.

Using the Virtual Machine

To run the virtual machine, click the green Start button. You will then see an Ubuntu 16.04 login screen. The login details are:

• Username: robotclass
• Password: robot

Quick Test to Check that Everything is Working:

To test that the machine and ROS is working open a terminal and run the following command:

$ roscore

The terminal should output something similar to what you see in the picture below. If this is the case you are all done!

To Check

At the end of this lab, you should be able to do the following:

• Launch the virtual machine
• Run roscore in the terminal

Extra

• A bit more on ROS history
• Building a Robot Operating System for the Future