ROS Robotics Projects

Build exciting robotics projects such as mobile manipulators, self-driving cars, and industrial robots powered by ROS, machine learning, and virtual reality

Key Features

• Create and program cool robotic projects using powerful ROS libraries
• Build industrial robots like mobile manipulators to handle complex tasks
• Learn how reinforcement learning and deep learning are used with ROS

Book Description

Nowadays, heavy industrial robots placed in workcells are being replaced by new age robots called cobots, which don't need workcells. They are used in manufacturing, retail, banks, energy, and healthcare, among other domains. One of the major reasons for this rapid growth in the robotics market is the introduction of an open source robotics framework called the Robot Operating System (ROS).

This book covers projects in the latest ROS distribution, ROS Melodic Morenia with Ubuntu Bionic (18.04). Starting with the fundamentals, this updated edition of ROS Robotics Projects introduces you to ROS-2 and helps you understand how it is different from ROS-1. You'll be able to model and build an industrial mobile manipulator in ROS and simulate it in Gazebo 9. You'll then gain insights into handling complex robot applications using state machines and working with multiple robots at a time. This ROS book also introduces you to new and popular hardware such as Nvidia's Jetson Nano, Asus Tinker Board, and Beaglebone Black, and allows you to explore interfacing with ROS. You'll learn as you build interesting ROS projects such as self-driving cars, making use of deep learning, reinforcement learning, and other key AI concepts.

By the end of the book, you'll have gained the confidence to build interesting and intricate projects with ROS.

What you will learn

• Grasp the basics of ROS and understand ROS applications
• Uncover how ROS-2 is different from ROS-1
• Handle complex robot tasks using state machines
• Communicate with multiple robots and collaborate to build apps with them
• Explore ROS capabilities with the latest embedded boards such as Tinker Board S and Jetson Nano
• Discover how machine learning and deep learning techniques are used with ROS
• Build a self-driving car powered by ROS
• Teleoperate your robot using Leap Motion and a VR headset

Who this book is for

If you’re a student, hobbyist, professional, or anyone with a passion for learning robotics and interested in learning about algorithms, motion control, and perception capabilities from scratch, this book is for you. This book is also ideal for anyone who wants to build a new product and for researchers to make the most of what’s already available to create something new and innovative in the field of robotics.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started with ROS
2. Introduction to ROS-2 and Its Capabilities
3. Building an Industrial Mobile Manipulator
4. Handling Complex Robot Tasks Using State Machines
5. Building an Industrial Application
6. Multi-Robot Collaboration
7. ROS on Embedded Platforms and Their Control
8. Reinforcement Learning and Robotics
9. Deep Learning Using ROS and TensorFlow
10. Creating a Self-Driving Car Using ROS
11. Teleoperating Robots Using a VR Headset and Leap Motion
12. Face Detection and Tracking Using ROS, OpenCV, and Dynamixel Servos

Ramkumar is a roboticist and a researcher by profession. He started building robots since his sixth grade and has been into the robotics field for over 15 years through personal and professional connect. He has built, in person, over 80+ robots of different types. With an overall professional experience of 7 years (4 years full time and 3 years part-time/internship) in the robotics industry, he has ROS experience of 5 years. As a part of his professional career, he has built over 15+ industrial robot solutions using ROS. He also fascinates building drones and is a drone pilot by practice. His research interests and passion are towards the field of SLAM, motion planning, sensor fusion, multi-robot communication, and systems integration.

Lentin Joseph is an author, roboticist and robotics entrepreneur from India. He runs a robotics software company called Qbotics Labs in Kochi/Kerala. He has 8 years of experience in the robotics domain primarily in Robot Operating System, OpenCV, and PCL.

He has authored several books in ROS, namely, Learning Robotics using Python first and second edition, Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming first and second edition, ROS Robotics Projects, and Robot Operating System for Absolute Beginners.

He has pursued his Masters in Robotics and Automation from India and also worked at Robotics Institute, CMU, USA. He is also a TEDx speaker.