Robotics and ROS - Learn by Doing! Manipulators

Install a robust robotics development environment by upgrading the terminal, adding ros packages (move it, ros controllers, gazebo), and setting up python tools (pip, flask) plus vscode and arduino ide.

Explore device control in ROS through drivers that connect hardware to the OS, using printers and cameras as examples to provide a standard interface for sending commands and retrieving data.

Create and initialize a ros workspace with a src folder, add the arduino ball test package with dependencies ros cpp, ros py, and std_msgs, and build with catkin_make.

Master the rosparam workflow on the ROS parameter server by listing, getting, and setting parameters such as ros distro noetic and first name Antonio, which vanish when ROS master stops.

Convert sacro and macro to erdf, load the robot description into the ROS parameter server, and visualize the model in rviz using the robot state publisher and joint state publisher.

Learn how Gazebo enables a digital twin in ROS by simulating sensors and motors, publishing identical topics to real hardware, and testing perception and grasping in a virtual environment.

Enhance the URDF with collision, mass, inertia, and transmission data for Gazebo simulation, using macros for default inertial values and configuring Gazebo plugins for robot control.

Learn how YAML configuration files enable modular ROS nodes for different robots. Load these parameters from the ROS parameter server to tailor grasping applications to varying joints and grippers.

Create a yaml configuration file in the Arduino Test package, start the ros core, and load it into the parameter server with ros param load; verify with ros param list.

Develop a basic ROS C++ service server that sums two input integers, defines the request and response in a srv file, advertises the service, and runs with roscore.

Build the real robot control system with ROS and C++. Create an Arduino board interface with joint state and joint command interfaces, managed by a controller manager.

Implements the Arduino board interface logic to run the ROS controller, converting commands to degrees via the radians-to-degrees service and publishing to Arduino actuate using joint state and position interfaces.

Learn how two-dimensional rotation changes a rigid body's orientation in the plane, using frames l and w and a rotation matrix to relate coordinates between the frames.

Learn how ROS actions provide non-blocking asynchronous communication between an action client and an action server for long-running robotic tasks, offering goal submission, periodic feedback, and final results.

Build a C++ ROS action server connected to a movie API to define robot tasks, using Move It to plan trajectories and Alexa for voice-triggered execution.

Create and configure a custom Alexa skill to control an Arduino robot over the internet, including invocation name, intents, endpoint setup, building, and testing with voice and JSON requests.

Configure the Alexa skill and establish communication with your PC using engine rock HTTP server on port 5000. Configure the Alexa developer console endpoint and test the interaction.

Establish bidirectional Arduino–ROS communication to actuate servo motors, using the Rosie Arduino library to serialize messages and enable the Arduino as a ROS node publishing and subscribing to topics.

Develop hands-on skills in robotics and ROS manipulators by assembling the robot in part 3 of the hardware lab.