A new book by Lentin Joseph, ROS Robotics Programming, outlines more than 14 robotics projects using ROS that can be engaged with without requiring a lot of hardware. The book starts with an introduction to ROS and its installation procedure. After discussing the basics, you’ll be taken through great projects such as building a self-driving car, an autonomous mobile robot, and image recognition using deep learning and ROS. You can find ROS robotic applications for beginner, intermediate, and expert levels inside.

This book is unique in that it focuses on ROS via the lens of robotics projects only. Lentin is the CEO/Founder of Qbotics Labs and the author of Learning Robotics using Python and Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming.

Below is an overview of the chapters in the book:

Chapter 1, Getting Started with ROS Robotics Application Development, is for absolute beginners to ROS. No need to worry if you don’t have experience in ROS; this chapter will help you give you an idea of the ROS software framework and its concepts.

Chapter 2, Face Detection and Tracking Using ROS, OpenCV and Dynamixel Servos, takes you through a cool project that you can do with ROS and the OpenCV library. This project basically creates a face tracker application in which your face will be tracked in such a way that the camera will always train on your face. We will use intelligent servos such as Dynamixel to rotate the robot on its axis.

Chapter 3, Building a Siri-Like Chatbot in ROS, is for those of you who want to make your robot interactive and intelligent without much hassle. This project creates a chatterbot in ROS that you can communicate with using text or speech. This project will be useful if you’re going to create social or service robots.

Chapter 4, Controlling Embedded Boards Using ROS, helps you build a robot using Arduino, an embedded compatible board, Raspberry Pi, or Odroid and an interface to ROS. In this chapter, you will see a wide variety of embedded boards and the interfacing projects made with them.

Chapter 5, Teleoperate a Robot Using Hand Gestures, will teach you how to build a gesture control device using Arduino and IMU. The gestures are translated into motion commands by ROS nodes.

Chapter 6, Object Detection and Recognition, has an interesting project for detecting objects. You will learn both 2D and 3D object recognition using powerful ROS packages.

Chapter 7, Deep Learning Using ROS and TensorFlow, is a project made using a trending technology in robotics. Using the TensorFlow library and ROS, we can implement interesting deep-learning applications. You can implement image recognition using deep learning, and an application using SVM can be found in this chapter.

Chapter 8, ROS on MATLAB and Android, is intended for building robot applications using ROS, Matlab, and Android.

Chapter 9, Building an Autonomous Mobile Robot, is about creating an autonomous mobile robot with the help of ROS. You can see how to use packages such as navigation, gmapping, and AMCL to make a mobile robot autonomous.

Chapter 10, Creating a Self-driving Car Using ROS, is one of the more interesting projects in this book. In this chapter, we will build a simulation of the self-driving car using ROS and Gazebo.

Chapter 11, Teleoperating Robot Using VR Headset and Leap Motion, shows you how to control a robot’s actions using a VR headset and Leap Motion sensor. You can play around with virtual reality (a trending technology these days).

Chapter 12, Controlling Your Robots over the Web, we will see how to build interactive web applications using rosbridge in ROS.

The book uses ROS Kinetic and Indigo installed on latest Ubuntu L.T.S 16.04.01. The codes are also compatible with ROS Jade.

A basic knowledge in R.O.S, GNU/Linux, and C++ programming concepts is recommended.

The book is published by PACKT and can be purchased at Amazon Global and PACKT Publishing.

This book begins with a deep overview of the ROS framework, discusses robot manipulation and navigation, and covers how ROS interfaces with I/O boards, sensors, and actuators. Vision sensors are essential ingredients in robotics, and so an entire chapter is dedicated to how they interface with ROS. The book also explores hardware interfacing and the simulation of complex robots in ROS and ROS Industrial, and finishes with a chapter on best practices to follow while programming in ROS.

Below is an overview of the chapters in the book:

1. Introduction to ROS and its package management
2. Working with 3D robot modeling in ROS
3. Simulating  robots using ROS and Gazebo
4. Using the ROS MoveIt! and Navigation stack
5. Working with Pluginlib, Nodelets and Gazebo plugins
6. Writing ROS controllers and visualization plugin
7. Interfacing I/O boards, sensors and actuators to ROS
8. Programming Vision sensors using ROS, Open-CV and PCL
9. Building  and interfacing differential drive mobile robot hardware in ROS
10. Exploring the advanced capabilities of ROS MoveIt!
11. ROS for Industrial Robots
12. Troubleshooting and best practices in ROS

The book uses ROS Indigo installed on latest Ubuntu L.T.S 14.04.03. The codes are also compatible with ROS Jade. https://github.com/qboticslabs/mastering_ros

A basic knowledge in R.O.S, GNU/Linux, and C++ programming concepts is recommended.

The book is published by PACKT and can be purchased at Amazon Global  and PACKT Publishing. More information can be found on the book website and Wiki page.

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in:

• Learning robotics using Python
• Book Review: Implementation of Robot Systems, by Mike Wilson
• Arduino for Makers #2: Deconstructing Arduino programs
• Arduino for Makers #1: Setting up a development station
• MATLAB Robotics System Toolbox and ROS

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

A new book, Learning Robotics using Python, takes a different approach to teaching the Robotics Operating System (ROS). Written by Lentin Joseph, founder and CEO of Indian robotics startup Qbotics Labs, it enables you to learn by building an interactive, autonomous, mobile robot, and is the result of his research while designing the company’s autonomous robot prototype, Chefbot. It features Artificial Intelligence, vision capabilities, speech recognition and synthesis.

Chefbot is designed primarily to serve food in hotels and restaurants and Qbotics plans to release the robot as open hardware to develop a community focussed on improving the design. The company also provides assistance for clients autonomous machines.

Learning Robotics Using Python uses ROS Indigo, a stable version of ROS, installed on the latest Ubuntu L.T.S 14.04.02. The code is also compatible with ROS Jade. After a basic introduction, it looks at the mechanical design of robots using open source tools. ROS is introduced following the building of 2D and 3D models, and Chefbot is simulated using ROS and Gazebo. The Chefbot simulation is adapted from a Turtlebot simulator.

With a successful simulation in Gazebo, the book turns to the hardware element, the selection of the electronic components needed to build the robot. The sensor and actuator interfacing is explored and interfacing embedded boards to ROS using Python.

The Chefbot has (Kinect) sensors, ultrasonics and sound sensors, as well as motor encoders. The book looks at the detailed interfacing of each sensor with ROS and Kinect, and how to work with depth to pointcloud package.

In addition, it examines speech recognition and synthesis in robots, using ROS and Python, and implementing a version of Artificial Intelligence using ROS and Python.

After all this interfacing, the final integration is possible, both in hardware and software, resulting in the complete robot.

It needs a GUI controller, built using PyQt. Debugging is enabled via ROS rqt. Once the GUI has been constructed, it goes into the calibration and testing of the robot before its deployment.

Learning robotics using Python is available on the PACKT website and also Amazon.com.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Book Review: Implementation of Robot Systems, by Mike Wilson
• Arduino for Makers #2: Deconstructing Arduino programs
• Arduino for Makers #1: Setting up a development station
• MATLAB Robotics System Toolbox and ROS

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.