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ROS for Beginners: Basics, Motion, and OpenCV

Become an expert and learn robotics with Robot Operating System (ROS) in little time and don't be lost in broad docs

Highest Rated

Created byAnis Koubaa

Last updated 4/2023

English

English [Auto],Italian [Auto],

What you'll learn

Understand ROS Ecosystem (topics, nodes, messages, services, actionlib)
Develop simple applications to control robot motion
Understand how a position and orientation are represented in ROS
Recognize how to develop a C++/Python ROS project
Develop simple computer vision programs with ROS and OpenCV

Course content

17 sections • 153 lectures • 13h 47m total length

What is this course about?5:35
Learn the core concepts of the robot operating system (ROS) for beginners, including nodes, topics, messages, services, motion, perception, and OpenCV.
[IMPORTANT] What is you face errors and need to debug and find solutions?0:59
About the Instructor1:18

About this section (slides attached to resources)0:11
Abstract. Robot Operating System (ROS) becomes nowadays the de-facto standard for developing robotics applications. The pre-birth initiatives were emerging from STanford AI Robot (STAIR) project and Personal Robots (PR) program, which aimed at creating dynamic software systems for robotics applications, until 2007 when Willow Garage, a major robotics investor, boosted the development of this initiative and contributed to the release of the first ROS software packages in 2009. The first version of ROS was released in 2010 and nowadays ROS becomes the largest ecosystem and platform for robotics software development. In just a few years of its release, ROS has witnessed a huge community with an increasing number of users and developers from academia and industry, as well as hobbyists. How did ROS revolutionize robotics software development in just a few years? In this presentation, I will give an overview of ROS and its evolution in the past years after its release. I will unveil the secrets of ROS that makes it a revolutionary solution for developing robotics applications. I will share my experience, as a computer scientist working on robotics, developing robotics applications in the pre-ROS and post-ROS times, and how ROS made a complete shift in the software engineering and development approaches for mobile robots. The presentation will also give a small overview of the main concepts of ROS and the most important libraries and packages that comes with it. Video demonstrations and real illustrations will be presented.
Introduction1:37
Why did I decided to use ROS in my work?5:55
Discover why ROS revolutionizes robotic software by enabling high-level development, simplifying control without low-level drivers, and enabling multi-robot coordination, path planning, and obstacle avoidance for drones and robots.
The Robot Life Cycle2:51
ROS Impact1:30
Self-Driving Car Use Case2:33
ROS Evolution1:18
ROS Distributions (version) over Time2:34
ROS Architecture1:45
Explore the ros architecture: nodes are processes that register with the ros master to communicate, but ros 1's single point of failure, with python and c++ client libraries using tcp/udp.
ROS Basic Concepts and Demo3:46
Launch the ros core and start nodes to enable communication via the ros master, then monitor topics, velocity messages, turtle sim, teleoperation, and Python or C++ APIs.
ROS Communication Paradigms (Topics/Services/ActionLib)4:32
ROS Path Planning and Navigation2:22
Limitation of ROS2:22
ROS27:28
[OPTIONAL] Some Contributions to ROS17:21
Explore diverse contributions to ROS across education and research, from turtlebot-based applications and radar emulation to drone control, OpenCV-enabled learning, cloud-based ROS link, and multi-robot coordination.

Note about this section0:24
[OPTIONAL] ROS Installation Tips12:08
In this video, I present the different ROS distributions and discuss how to choose among them. Then, I give some practical hints and guidelines for the installation of ROS and how to choose the appropriate operating system.
Install a Ubuntu Virtual Machine on Mac-OS using VM-Fusion3:57
In this lecture, I demonstrate how to install a Ubuntu virtual machine on Mac-OS to install and work with ROS on it.
UPDATE NOTE ABOUT ROS DISTRIBUTION0:35
Install ROS (Melodic) on Ubuntu (Bionic)4:17
In this video, I show how to install ROS Melodic on Ubuntu Bionic using the virtual machine installed in the previous video.
The process is the same to install any other ROS version
Which Integrated Development Environment (ID) to use with ROS?6:26
This video provides you some pointers on how to select a good IDE to develop projects with ROS.
This is rather an information that is not clear for new ROS users.
[UPDATE] Note: My recommendation of editor to use0:26

Section Note Update0:14
ROS Workspace and ROS Package (Setting up your ROS projects)12:51
In this lecture, I will explain the difference between a workspace and package in ROS and how to create them, and how to organize your ROS project.
Wrapping up1:28
ROS Workspace and ROS Package
Note about the next lecture0:11
[LEGACY] Setup ROS (Kinetic+Melodic) Project of the course using GitHub5:41
In this lecture, I present you can download ROS package (project) that contains the code I will be explaining during this course. It is recommended to download the code before starting the next lecture.

What is a ROS Computation Graph?2:41
ROS Computation Graph Life Cycle1:15
Learn the Ros computation graph life cycle by launching the turtle sim robot, registering with the Ros master, and linking a publisher and subscriber on the cmd topic.
Start the ROS Master Node1:40
How to run a new node (executable) in ROS?1:58
What happens when we start a new ROS node?1:48
Adding a teleop node to make the robot move2:12
Get the information of a node and the information of a topic2:49
The content of the motion message /tutle1/cmd_vel2:08
Understand the structure of a ROS message2:48
How to show the message structure on ROS command line?2:17
Publish a message on a topic from a command line1:39
Publish a message on the topic Turtle one slash CMD with ros topic pub, sending geometry msgs twist to drive the robot along x at velocity 0.1 for ten repeats.
Visualize the ROS Computation Graph using ros_rqt_graph0:42
Demo: Starting Turtlesim and checking information about the nodes and topics1:40
Launch a roscore session, start the turtle simulation node with rosrun turtle_sim turtle, and explore active nodes and topics to control turtle motion.
Demo: Showing the content of ROS messages published3:57
Demo: Understand the pose topic1:24
Demo: What is the benefit of using ROS?0:52
Demo: Publishing a message from a command line using rostopic pub6:45
Demo: rqt_graph0:44
Demonstrate how to inspect the ros computation graph with rqt_graph, showing the teleop turtle, turtle sim node, and the topic /turtle1/cmd1 in a graphical interface.
[Quiz] ROS Computation Graph
ROS Filesystem and Ecosystem
NOTE0:16
[OLD] The ROS Master Node (OPTIONAL - KEPT FOR STUDENT NOTES)2:53
In this video, I present ROS ecosystem and packages, and explain how to start roscore, the main node in ROS.
[OLD] ROS Computation Graph: Nodes, Topics (OPTIONAL - KEPT FOR STUDENT NOTES)20:55
In this tutorial, I explain the concepts of ROS nodes, ROS topics and ROS messages which are the key subjects that any ROS user has to understand very well to proceed further. I provide a clear illustrations of these concepts through demonstrations.

ROS Topics Overview4:51
Explore ROS topics by detailing publisher and subscriber relationships, one-to-one and one-to-many patterns, and how the ROS master coordinates node communication and TCP handshakes to stream data.
Question: what happens if ROS Master crashes?1:37
Guidelines to Write a Publisher and a Subscriber in ROS2:22
Overview of the Talker/Listener Application (ROS Hello World Example)1:23
Write a Publisher Node in Python5:48
Write a Subscriber Node in Python3:50
[DEMO] Talker/Listener in Python3:49
Write a Publisher/Subscriber Node in C++11:27
Develop a talker and listener publisher/subscriber node in c++, comparing it with python, detailing node initialization, advertise and subscribe calls, and essential build configurations in cmakelists.txt and package.xml.
[DEMO] Talker/Listener in C++8:09
Explore a demo ROS talker/listener in C++, creating a publisher and subscriber on the chatter topic, using node handles, messages, string streams, and catkin build steps.
Do-It-Yourself Assignment Explanation7:57
Do-It-Yourself: Write your First ROS Program to Control the Motion of a Robot
About the next two lectures0:14
[OLD-OPTIONAL] Write a ROS Publisher and Subscriber in C++32:15
[OLD-OPTIONAL] Write a ROS Publisher and Subscriber in Python10:34
In this video, you will learn how to write a publisher node and a subscriber node in Python using ROS. You will understand to which extent using Python makes coding in ROS much simpler.

Create Custom ROS Messages: Overview8:18
Create a custom ROS message named iot sensor with id, name, temperature, and humidity, and enable communication by updating the CMakeLists.txt and package.xml, then catkin_make.
[Demo] Create a Custom ROS Message: Implementation5:05
[DEMO] IoTSensor Custom Message Publisher/Subscriber Applications8:41
Learn to build a ROS publisher–subscriber app using a iot sensor message, publishing random temperature and humidity values on the iot sensor topic and validating with ROS tools.

What is a ROS Service?2:52
Understand ROS Services with Turtlesim5:09
[DEMO] ROS Services with Turtlesim5:14
Do-It-Yourself: ROS Service Hands-On Practice
AddTwoInts Service Overview6:08
Create the Service File and Request/Response Messages7:02
Write ROS Service (Client/Server) in Python6:15
Learn to write a ROS service in Python by building a server and client, using rospy, and defining request and response messages with fields A and B.
[DEMO] Write ROS Service (Client/Server) in Python7:03
This lecture demonstrates how to write a ROS service in Python.
This lecture is made using Ubuntu 20.04 and ROS Noetic.
[DEMO] Writing a ROS Service (Client/Service) in C++7:05
Rectangle Aera ROS Service (with video solution)

Note about this updated section0:32
Cleaning Application Overview6:55
Step 1. Understand Topics and Messages Used in the Application5:02
Import the Libraries in Python and C++1:19
Begin by importing the ROS libraries and messages for both Python and C++ implementations. Import rospy and the twist and post messages from geometry_msgs and the turtle theme MSG package.
The Divide and Conquer Approach1:31
Apply the divide and conquer approach to build a clinic application by implementing straight motion, rotation in place, go to goal, and spiral trajectories, then integrate them into a system.
Move Straight Line (C++/Python)8:40
[DEMO] Move Straight Line (C++/Python)8:03
Rotate Motion (C++/Python)6:06
Learn to rotate a robot in place using Python and C++, converting degrees to radians and publishing angular velocity to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise, stopping at the target angle.
[Demo] Rotate Motion (C++/Python)4:23
Go-To-Goal Behavior9:56
[Demo] Go-To-Goal Behavior4:36
Set Desired Orientation2:15
Set the robot's desired orientation by computing the relative angle between the current yaw and the target angle, convert degrees to radians, and rotate clockwise or counterclockwise accordingly.
[Demo] Set Desired Orientation1:28
Explore the set orientation method in ROS by commanding the robot to rotate to an absolute angle, such as 90, 45, or 180 degrees, at 30 degrees per second.
Spiral Trajectory0:47
Spiral Trajectory Demo2:53
Demonstrates spiral trajectory behavior for a grid cleaner application, showing how k, r, increment, and w_k shape the path, with a turtle simulator to observe trajectory changes.
Putting All Together: The Cleaning Application6:11
Running Multiple Nodes with a Launch File3:23

Requirements

Knowledge in C++ and/or Python Programming language.
Want to learn ROS
Eager to learn robotics

Description

News and Updates.

This is the best-seller course in ROS on Udemy.

My course has been upgraded to the latest version of ROS, ROS Noetic, with several new videos explaining the fundamental concepts of ROS with hands-on illustrations. It will also give you the required skills to later learn ROS2 and navigation stack, as presented in my two other courses.

Why am I teaching this course?

Typically, new ROS users encounter many difficulties when they start programming with ROS. Although there are so many tutorials, there are a lot of tips and practical issues that could not be easily found in tutorials and are not discussed and are left to the developer's luck. Although there is much documentation for ROS, several are very broad, and it takes too long to grasp the concepts well. This is where this course plays a role and provides an added value by providing a focused introduction to the BASICS of ROS. The course not only presents the basic concepts of ROS but also addresses two essential fields in robotics: (1) motion and (2) perception. We will apply the general concepts of ROS in the context of robotic motion and perception. The course will provide you with an opportunity to learn about OpenCV, the most powerful computer vision library that promotes robotic perception.

My approach is to take you STEP BY STEP through the roadmap of learning ROS so that you learn the concepts in the proper order and help you build an experience from one lecture to the other.

This is a course that provides the fundamental concepts and basics of the Robot Operating System (ROS). This course intends to give beginner ROS users a quick and focused introduction to ROS basics and practical tips that help them better manage their first projects with ROS in C++ and Python. In particular, developing with C++ in ROS requires special care compared to Python to configure the compilation and runtime environment well. This is presented clearly in this course.

There are mainly three majors steps in the course:

ROS Basics and Foundation: This deals with the general ROS concepts everyone has to know, like ROS topics, Services, Messages, and Nodes, ...
Motion in ROS: We apply the concepts learned in Step 1 to make a robot move. We will develop a different trajectory in the context of an excellent example simulating a cleaning robot. In particular, we illustrate how to represent the pose (position and orientation) of a robot in ROS and how to send a motion control message to make the robot move. We clearly demonstrate how to implement linear, rotational, and spiral motions and how all of these can be integrated to simulate a cleaning application. This part will give you the background you need to understand robot kinematics and how motion is represented in ROS.
Perception in ROS: I will introduce how a robot sees the environment using a camera, how the images are collected in ROS, and how they are processed in OpenCV.
Arduino: you will also learn how to use Arduino boards and sensors with ROS using the ROSSERIAL Arduino interface. This will allow you to integrate any Arduino sensor and board into your robot and robotics applications.

Based on my experience, these are the most important things any new ROS user must know to go further with their own robotics project.

I also provide some hands-on activities that allow the learner to assess his understanding and push him to practice the concepts he learned.

My experience with ROS

I have been programming with ROS for many years both in academic and industrial projects. I am very passionate about developing a program with ROS. I have also been teaching ROS at the University and providing training programs. I am the leader of the Robotics and Internet-of-Things Lab at Prince Sultan University and also a consultant for Gaitech Robotics. I have developed many ROS packages for robots and drones. I have been leading international scientific activities around ROS, and in particular, I am the editor of three volumes of books with Springer entitled Robot Operating System, The Complete Reference. I gained a lot of experience in what difficulties new users encounter in learning ROS, which contributed to pinning right to the point addressing these problems through the different lectures of the course.

Welcome to the World of ROS.

Who this course is for:

Beginner ROS developers and users
Students at Universities learning ROS
Anyone interest to know about the basic concepts of ROS
Curious about robotics
Whoever wants to learn ROS without wasting time

ROS for Beginners: Basics, Motion, and OpenCV

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction3 lectures • 8min

ROS: How did it revolutionize robotics software development15 lectures • 58min

[NEW] Setting your environment with ROS Noetic8 lectures • 10min

[LEGACY-OPTIONAL] Installation and Environment Setup7 lectures • 28min

Create a ROS Workspace and a ROS Package5 lectures • 20min

[NEW] ROS Computation Graph21 lectures • 1hr 3min

ROS Topics13 lectures • 1hr 34min

ROS Messages3 lectures • 22min

ROS Services8 lectures • 47min

[NEW] Motion in ROS (updated with ROS Noetic)17 lectures • 1hr 14min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: