Open Source Robotics

ROSVirtual, the cloud-based robotics learning platform, has recently added the PROJECTS learning module.  This section of the site is intended to bring together the various elements of robot design, simulation, and testing via well-defined projects suitable for the classroom. 

PROJECTS is just one of eleven learning modules that covers various robotics software and hardware topics with 130+ tutorials and videos at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.  ROSVirtual also features a live programming environment that includes platform-agnostic web access to:

ROS Indigo

Eclipse Java/C++ with FIRST/FRC plug-ins

Python

FIRST/FRC WPILib

RViz robot visualization

Gazebo robot simulation with FIRST FRCSim plug-in

Class assignment and tracking dashboard

The P1005 project (shown above) asks students to design their own 6-DOF arm geometry using a Unified Robot Description Format (URDF) file, an important design element used with the Robot Operating System (ROS).  The project goes on to integrate the URDF design into an RViz visualization where motion planning and control are applied.

ARS Robotics has gone live with its cloud-based robotics learning platform, ROSVirtual, aimed at schools, colleges, STEM centers, and individual enthusiasts. The website provides an interactive robotics programming environment and curated collection of tutorials ideal for educators or individuals who want to focus on the open source Robot Operating System (ROS).

Key features include:

Live programming environment (ROS, Eclipse Java/C++, Gazebo, RViz)

Accessible via web browser from any computer

Curated set of 130+ lessons and videos

Classroom assignment and planning dashboard

It can sometimes be a challenge to find enough computers with the right software to give students an adequate hands-on programming experience.   Providing software tools via a remote web browser session can be helpful because it allows students to be untethered from a limited number of dedicated computers. Individual users can be added or removed as needed.

ARS Robotics has gone live with its new web-enabled robotics learning platform, ROSVirtual, aimed at schools, colleges, STEM centers, and individual enthusiasts. The website provides a live remote robotics programming environment and curated collection of tutorials ideal for educators or individuals who want to focus on the open source Robot Operating System (ROS).

ROS has become the defacto standard in robotics since its first release in 2010. It allows robotic developers to access an extensive open source software library that they can use to develop, simulate, and build robots.  ROS has brought about a revolution in robotics software development with over 80 robots supported and a vibrant worldwide developer community.  Its popularity, stability, and reliability led BMW to use ROS for their autonomous driving research. 

In addition to giving users the ability to develop and simulate robots online, ROSVirtual  contains videos and lessons from a variety of sources organized in one place so the user can learn and practice ROS one step at a time.  The learning materials are organized with the educator in mind to facilitate lesson planning and student activity tracking.

ROSVirtual is provided as a subscription model with discounts available for educational organizations.

U.S. real wages have declined over the last 35 years despite GDP growing to new heights.  Although there are a variety of factors responsible for this economic morass for workers, the role of technology is widely acknowledged as one of the principal drivers enabling unprecedented worker productivity.  Automation, in particular, has enabled workers to do more with less.

As with previous technological revolutions, many agree that robotics will generate new opportunities for highly-skilled employees while at the same time eliminating lower-skilled jobs.   Economists, futurists, and technologists agree that demand for specialized skills in robotics and computer science will continue to grow.  High schools, community colleges, STEM centers, and universities have leaped to the opportunity by adding robotics classes and training programs.

Meet the Robot Operating System

Juxtaposed against the need for increased technical skills is the advent of a revolution in robotics software development.  Nowhere is this revolution more evident than in the growth of the Robot Operating System, or ROS.  

ROS was conceived at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the late 2000′s.  The effort was aimed at developing a software framework that allows different parts of a robot to communicate with each other.  Since then, it has evolved into a significant open source initiative with a vibrant developer community.  Since that early beginning, ROS has broadened to support a variety of robot functions that developers previously had to reinvent with each new project … and, because it’s open source, it’s free!

With ROS, you can download many of the modular software packages needed to support tasks such as motion planning, navigation, or object recognition.  The developer only has to plug these packages into his robot design to enable capabilities that used to take years to develop.  

ROS, contrary to its name, is not really an “operating system” in the vein of Linux or Windows nor is it a software standard.  It is instead a set of guidelines for developing robotics software that allow different components to communicate and interact.  It allows a sensor, for example, to work with the other parts of the robot.  Later, if you want to replace a laser sensor with an optical camera to do mapping, you just plug in the ROS package for the camera.  

Meet the ROSVirtual Learning Platform

ROS requires a computer running the Ubuntu operating system and the installation of the various complex software packages.  If you are like most individuals and schools, you probably only have Windows computers.  To make ROS work on Windows, you have to install additional complex software to emulate the Ubuntu environment.

A simpler alternative is to run a remote ROS session over the web using ROSVirtual.com.  This requires nothing more than a web browser, which can run virtually on any computer.  In addition to a hosted ROS environment, the site includes a curated set of lessons and tutorials that takes the user into the ROS world step by step.

C++ and Python knowledge is particularly helpful, but anyone with some programming experience will be able to learn new concepts.  

Many of us are familiar with open source software initiatives such as Android and Linux.  These projects involve thousands of professional, academic, and individual software developers each who contribute code to make such crowd-sourced engineering feats available to the masses, typically for free. Now it appears that a new open source frontier has been opened, this time in the field of robotics.  

Meet the Robot Operating System

The Robot Operating System, or ROS, was conceived at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the late 2000′s.  The effort was aimed at developing a software framework that allows different parts of a robot to communicate with each other.  Since then, it has evolved into a significant open source initiative with a vibrant developer community that has broadened to support diverse robot functions that developers had previously had to reinvent with each new project.

Plug Me In 

With ROS, you can download many of the modular software packages needed to support tasks such as motion planning, navigation, or object recognition.  The developer only has to plug these packages into his robot design to enable capabilities that used to take years to develop.  

ROS, contrary to its name, is not really an “operating system” in the vein of Linux or Windows nor is it a software standard.  It is instead a set of guidelines for developing robotics software that allow different components to communicate and interact.  It allows a sensor, for example, to work with the other parts of the robot.  Later, if you want to replace a laser sensor with an optical camera to do mapping, you just plug in the ROS package for the camera.  

Hello World

The first version of ROS was released in 2010.  Since then, worldwide interest and activity in ROS has exploded.  It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of ROS enthusiasts that have downloaded over 9 million packages.  ROS has become the defacto standard in robotics, which previously suffered from a lack of standards.