• middleware, i.e. inter-process communication
• hardware abstraction for robots
• message definitions (for RPC)
• package management system, tailored towards development
• collection of open-source software packages
• multi language: C++, Python, Java

• topics (publish - subscribe)
• services (remote procedure calls)
• nodes: logical computing components, several per process possible
• central naming service (roscore)
• remapping: renaming of nodes, topics, etc.
• central parameter storage

• http://wiki.ros.org/
• Clearpath Tutorials

• extends cmake to facilitate package management dependencies, installation to standard locations
• catkin_make, catkin_make_isolated, catkin tools
• hierarchical stacking of workspaces /opt/ros/indigo /vol/nirobots/ros/indigo /homes/juser/ros
  • load config with source <base dir>/setup.bash
• workspace structure
  • src/
  • build/
  • devel/
    • setup.bash

mkdir ~/ros cd ~/ros source /opt/ros/indigo/setup.bash catkin config –init mkdir src cd src catkin create pkg lecture git clone https://github.com/rhaschke/lecture cd lecture catkin build

• package.xml
  • defines folder as a ROS package
  • defines dependencies: build, test, run
  • author, license, package information
• CMakeLists.txt

source ~/ros/devel/setup.bash roscore & rostopic list rostopic pub -r 1 chatter std_msgs/String “Hello World” & rostopic echo chatter

rosrun roscpp_tutorials talker chatter:=foobar rosrun roscpp_tutorials listener chatter:=foobar