Robot Operating System (ROS) Quick Start Guide

What is ROS?

The Robotic Operating System (ROS) is a collection of software that facilitates robotics. Most notably, it enables communication between multiple networked devices (robots) without the need for low-level networking. We use ROS in the flight room to communicate all sensing and control data between computers and robots.

How do I use ROS?

• Familiarize yourself with the basic ROS tutorials (independent of the flight room)
• Setup Local Hostnames
• Ensure that you can communicate with the flight room’s ROS core by setting the following in terminal

  $ export ROS_MASTER_URI = http://relay.local:11311
  $ export ROS_HOSTNAME = $HOSTNAME.local
  

• Hint: add these commands to your ~/.bashrc which will execute each time you start a new bash session

How do I read data from Optitrack on my personal computer (or robot)?

Refer to Reading Data with ROS