I would love to see a series showing the development from the first idea to the prototype up to a final product and it's testing. Like a fire robot using IR temperature sensors and distance sensors to find the fire and spray water on it.
It does sound like a complex package. However, if it integrates with Python then maybe I'll have a go with it after I have learnt some Python (which I am currently doing). It would be good to know how to use it but I'm not sure I have the perseverance to actually get anywhere with it, we'll have to see.
Hi Dubbie, ROS is a full ecosystem of repositories/packages that provides a backend (Architecture, data structures, communications and guidelines) and also blocks of functionalities used in robotics, from sensor drivers to navigation and perception algorithms. It is indeed a big complex system and it takes time to get into it. I have been following its evolution over the years (since 2010/2011) and had the chance of using it in 3 different projects in that time (One, in 2011, then 2014 and then 2018). Sometimes I felt like starting from scratch every time in certain aspects, but I found that wasn't really like this because all that you learn is useful later. In my opinion and my personal case, I found there are three main things you have to learn and spend time on before expecting a robotic application running using ROS. (Well, at least get the basics and depending on your experience, your knowledge could be more than enough. For example, I was finishing my Bsc on Electronics by 2011 so everything was new to me ):
Understand ROS architecture and its concepts (technically speaking). The wiki is a good start to understand all those things like nodes, topics, packages, master, etc
Understand ROS software development. ROS is not just like a library you import/include and use and voilá! your app is working. ROS is a complete framework in which you need to follow some guidelines to use and integrate it into your application. There are wrappers for many languages but C++ and Python are the most used. So if you need to learn any of them, do it in parallel but not within ROS (my opinion and advice).
Understand ROS building process and package ecosystem. As said before, A ROS app is not just a program you run. If you are not familiar with the software development process, you can learn a lot from ROS. It includes a build system, dependency management, workspace handling and a lot of tools that allow this framework to promote the reuse of code through a modular approach. At this point, you will learn how the developer community works and how to collaborate with them.
You can practice this by following the tutorials, Installing it, breaking it, running demos and testing code that is ready to run.
Once you have clear the base of these topics, you are ready to start using ROS and writing some code for a robotic application. It looks like a lot to do, but with a bit of patience and motivation you will get it, it's worth it.
I would certainly also like to learn more about ROS as well as the Microsoft version. I have really only worked with embedded systems without an OS in robotics so my knowledge is limited in the ROS area. I do prefer and click and use approach. My previous experience of many larger packages, even the Arduino IDE, is that it is not so simple. I recently downloaded a Python environment (? I'm just learning all this stuff) and it downloaded quickly and worked immediately. I also downloaded the Atom editor which took much longer and was not so easy to get going. It was hard to understand why the editor was more complicated than the language.
I voted for "Types of robots" because each of them has different application scenarios, and the learning content could be created in a top-down fashion. But at the same time, there are principles shared between them, like sensors, actuators and software. For example, I think that a series of Essentials in ROS (Robot Operative System) will be awesome for the community, given that ROS is more than 10 years old now.
Perhaps this could be a sub-unit of the course material. I'm interested to know simple mechanics behind making things move,maybe actuators or drive chains perhaps? I'm thinking along the lines of how a simple motor can sometime get used to perform some very repeatable but non-linear function, how rotary motion can become linear etc. Things like the Maltese Cross action, cams and pivotted systems. I'm sure I've sometimes missed a big section off my learning.
To be honest I'd be up for learning about any of it, but particularly the industrial stuff. I've really been enjoying digging a bit deeper into programming the Universal Robots UR5e this week. (And I only smashed it into something once.)
I like everything related to robotics but I have yet to see good information (parts, how-to, diagrams) about Indoor Positioning Systems. This is a subject that plays a big part in autonomous vehicles for indoor purposes.
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