The Easy Project to Learn ROS

Q: I would like you to serve as a ROS teacher. Your role is to find an easy software-based project and teach me to master it step by step:
Sure, I’d be happy to help you learn ROS (Robot Operating System) by guiding you through a simple project! Here’s a step-by-step guide to building a simple ROS package that publishes and subscribes to messages:

1. Install ROS: If you haven’t already, you’ll need to install ROS on your computer. The installation process varies depending on your operating system, but you can find instructions on the official ROS website.

2. Create a ROS package: Open a terminal window and navigate to your ROS workspace directory. Then, create a new ROS package using the following command:

   catkin_create_pkg my_package rospy
   

   This will create a new package called “my_package” that depends on the “rospy” library.

3. Create a publisher node: In the “src” directory of your new package, create a new Python file called “publisher.py”. Add the following code to the file:

   #!/usr/bin/env python
   
   import rospy
   from std_msgs.msg import String
   
   def publisher():
       pub = rospy.Publisher('my_topic', String, queue_size=10)
       rospy.init_node('publisher', anonymous=True)
       rate = rospy.Rate(10) # 10hz
       while not rospy.is_shutdown():
           message = "Hello, ROS!"
           pub.publish(message)
           rate.sleep()
   
   if __name__ == '__main__':
       try:
           publisher()
       except rospy.ROSInterruptException:
           pass
   

   This code defines a ROS node that publishes a message to the “my_topic” topic at a rate of 10 Hz. The message is a simple string (“Hello, ROS!”).

4. Create a subscriber node: In the “src” directory of your package, create another Python file called “subscriber.py”. Add the following code to the file:

   #!/usr/bin/env python
   
   import rospy
   from std_msgs.msg import String
   
   def callback(data):
       rospy.loginfo(rospy.get_caller_id() + "I heard %s", data.data)
   
   def subscriber():
       rospy.init_node('subscriber', anonymous=True)
       rospy.Subscriber('my_topic', String, callback)
       rospy.spin()
   
   if __name__ == '__main__':
       subscriber()
   

   This code defines a ROS node that subscribes to the “my_topic” topic and prints out any messages it receives.

5. Build and run the package: In the root directory of your package, run the following commands to build the package:

   catkin_make
   source devel/setup.bash
   

   Then, in two separate terminal windows, run the publisher and subscriber nodes:

   rosrun my_package publisher.py
   

   rosrun my_package subscriber.py
   

   You should see the subscriber node print out “I heard Hello, ROS!” every 0.1 seconds (corresponding to the 10 Hz publishing rate of the publisher node).

That’s it! You’ve successfully created a simple ROS package that publishes and subscribes to messages. From here, you can experiment with different message types, topics, and publishing rates to get a feel for how ROS works. Good luck!

I would like you to serve as a ROS teacher. Your role is to find an easy software-based project and teach me to master it step by step. In addition, I just want to know how to read a source code project written in ros and know how to midify it to other fucntions.

Reply from GPT

Sure, I’d be happy to help you learn ROS! A good project to start with would be a simple obstacle avoidance robot. Here are the steps to get you started:

1. Install ROS on your computer. You can follow the instructions on the ROS wiki for your specific operating system: http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Installation

2. Create a new ROS package using the command catkin_create_pkg. This package will contain all the files for your project. You can name it whatever you like.

3. Create a new ROS node using Python or C++. This node will control the robot’s movements and obstacle avoidance behavior. You can use the ROS tutorials to learn how to create a basic node: http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/WritingPublisherSubscriber%28c%2B%2B%29

4. Add a sensor to the robot to detect obstacles. You can use a simple ultrasonic sensor or a more advanced LIDAR sensor. Connect the sensor to your computer using a USB cable or other appropriate interface.

5. Modify your node to read data from the sensor and use it to control the robot’s movements. You can use the ROS tutorials to learn how to read data from sensors: http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/WritingPublisherSubscriber%28c%2B%2B%29

6. Test your robot by running the node and moving the robot around obstacles. You can use the ROS tools to visualize the robot’s movements and sensor data: http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/UnderstandingTopics

To read and modify existing ROS projects, you will need to understand the structure of ROS packages and nodes, as well as the syntax of the programming language used (Python or C++). You can find open-source ROS projects on GitHub and other code-sharing platforms. To modify these projects, you will need to download the source code, make changes to the relevant files, and then compile and run the modified code. It is also helpful to have a basic understanding of how the project works and what each file does, which you can gain by reading the project’s documentation and comments within the code.

Reply from Newbing

Sure! I can help you learn ROS (Robot Operating System). There are many tutorials available online that can help you get started with a software-based project. For example, the ROS Wiki has a list of tutorials for beginners that cover topics such as installing and configuring your ROS environment, navigating the ROS filesystem, creating a ROS package, building a ROS package, understanding ROS nodes, topics, services and parameters, using rqt_console and roslaunch, using rosed to edit files in ROS, creating a ROS msg and srv, writing a simple publisher and subscriber (in C++ and Python), writing a simple service and client (in C++ and Python), recording and playing back data¹.

There are also many free video tutorials available on YouTube that can help you learn ROS. Some popular channels include ROBOTIS, Chris Fauerbach, Justin Huang, ETH Zurich, Tiziano Fiorenzani, Shawn Chen, and Construct².

Would you like more information on any specific tutorial or topic?