Preface

Robot Operating System is robotic middleware that helps developers to program robotic applications, and is widely used in robotics companies, research centers, and universities. Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming, Second Edition presents advanced concepts of the ROS framework and is particularly suitable for users who are already familiar with the basic concepts of ROS. However, a brief introduction of the basic ROS concepts is proposed in the first chapter in order to help new developers start with the examples in the book. Readers will be guided through the creation, the modeling model and design, new robots, as well as simulating and interfacing them with the ROS framework. They will use advanced simulation software to use ROS tools that allow robot navigation, manipulation, and sensor elaboration. Finally, the reader will learn how to handle important concepts such as ROS low-level controllers, nodelets, and plugins. The readers can work with almost all of the examples of the book using only a standard computer without any special hardware requirements. However, additional hardware components will be used in some chapters of the book to discuss how to use ROS with external sensors, actuators, and I/O boards.

The book is organized as follows. After an introduction to the basic concepts of ROS, how to model and simulate a robot is discussed. Gazebo and the V-REP software simulator will be used to control and interact with the modeled robot. These simulators will be used to connect the robots with MoveIt! and navigation ROS package. ROS plugins, controllers, and nodelets are then discussed. Finally, the book discusses how to connect Matlab and Simulink software with ROS.