Learning Robotics using Python: Design, simulate, program, and prototype an autonomous mobile robot using ROS, OpenCV, PCL, and Python (2nd Edition)

Description

Key Features

• Design, simulate, build, and program an interactive autonomous mobile robot
• Leverage the power of ROS, Gazebo, and Python to enhance your robotic skills
• A hands-on guide to creating an autonomous mobile robot with the help of ROS and Python

Who This Book Is ForThis book is for those who are conducting research in mobile robotics and autonomous navigation. As well as the robotics research domain, this book is also for the robot hobbyist community. You’re expected to have a basic understanding of Linux commands and Python.

What You Will Learn

• Design a differential robot from scratch
• Model a differential robot using ROS and URDF
• Simulate a differential robot using ROS and Gazebo
• Design robot hardware electronics
• Interface robot actuators with embedded boards
• Explore the interfacing of different 3D depth cameras in ROS
• Implement autonomous navigation in ChefBot
• Create a GUI for robot control

In DetailRobot Operating System (ROS) is one of the most popular robotics software frameworks in research and industry. It has various features for implementing different capabilities in a robot without implementing them from scratch.

This book starts by showing you the fundamentals of ROS so you understand the basics of differential robots. Then, you’ll learn about robot modeling and how to design and simulate it using ROS. Moving on, we’ll design robot hardware and interfacing actuators. Then, you’ll learn to configure and program depth sensors and LIDARs using ROS. Finally, you’ll create a GUI for your robot using the Qt framework.

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have a clear idea of how to integrate and assemble everything into a robot and how to bundle the software package.

Style and approachA step-by-step guide which will help you to create an autonomous mobile robot with the help of ROS and Python. It will help you to understand and implement the fundamental concepts of differential robots and teach you to create differential robot’s simulation using Gazebo.

Table of Contents

1.  Title Page
2. Copyright and Credits
3. Learning Robotics using Python Second Edition
4. Dedication
5. Packt Upsell
6. Why subscribe?
7. PacktPub.com
8. Contributors
9. About the author
10. About the reviewer
11. Packt is searching for authors like you
12. Preface
13. Who this book is for
14. What this book covers
15. To get the most out of this book
16. Download the example code files
17. Download the color images
18. Conventions used
19. Get in touch
20. Reviews
21. Getting Started with Robot Operating System
22. Technical requirements
23. Introduction to ROS
24. ROS concepts
25. The ROS filesystem
26. The ROS Computation Graph
27. The ROS community level
28. Installing ROS on Ubuntu
29. Introducing catkin
30. Creating a ROS package
31. Hello_world_publisher.py
32. Hello_world_subscriber.py
33. Introducing Gazebo
34. Installing Gazebo
35. Testing Gazebo with the ROS interface
36. Summary
37. Questions
38. Understanding the Basics of Differential Robots
39. Mathematical modeling of the robot
40. Introduction to the differential drive system and robot kinematics
41. Forward kinematics of a differential robot
42. Explanations of the forward kinematics equation
43. Inverse kinematics
44. Summary
45. Questions
46. Further information
47. Modeling the Differential Drive Robot
48. Technical requirements
49. Requirements of a service robot
50. Robot drive mechanism
51. Selection of motors and wheels
52. Calculation of RPM of motors
53. Calculation of motor torque
54. The design summary
55. The robot chassis design
56. Installing LibreCAD, Blender, and MeshLab
57. Installing LibreCAD
58. Installing Blender
59. Installing MeshLab
60. Creating 2D CAD drawing of a robot using LibreCAD
61. The base plate designs
62. Base plate pole design
63. Wheel, motor, and motor clamp design
64. Caster wheel design
65. Middle plate design
66. Top plate design
67. Working with a 3D model of the robot using Blender
68. Python scripting in Blender
69. Introduction to Blender Python APIs
70. Python script of the robot model
71. Creating a URDF model of the robot
72. Creating a Chefbot description ROS package
73. Summary
74. Questions
75. Further reading
76. Simulating a Differential Drive Robot Using ROS
77. Technical requirements
78. Getting started with the Gazebo simulator
79. The Gazebo’s graphical user interface
80. The Scene
81. The Left Panel
82. Right Panel
83. Gazebo toolbars
84. Upper toolbar
85. Bottom toolbar
86. Working with a TurtleBot 2 simulation
87. Moving the robot
88. Creating a simulation of Chefbot
89. Depth image to laser scan conversion
90. URDF tags and plugins for Gazebo simulation
91. Cliff sensor plugin
92. Contact sensor plugin
93. Gyroscope plugin
94. Differential drive plugin
95. Depth camera plugin
96. Visualizing the robot sensor data
97. Getting started with Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
98. Implementing SLAM in the Gazebo environment
99. Creating a map using SLAM
100. Getting started with Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization
101. Implementing AMCL in the Gazebo environment
102. Autonomous navigation of Chefbot in the hotel using Gazebo
103. Summary
104. Questions
105. Further reading
106. Designing ChefBot Hardware and Circuits
107. Technical requirements
108. Specifications of the ChefBot’s hardware
109. Block diagram of the robot
110. Motor and encoder
111. Selecting motors, encoders, and wheels for the robot
112. Motor driver
113. Selecting a motor driver/controller
114. Input pins
115. Output pins
116. Power supply pins
117. Embedded controller board
118. Ultrasonic sensors
119. Selecting an ultrasonic sensor
120. Inertial measurement unit
121. Kinect/Orbbec Astra
122. Central processing unit
123. Speakers/mic
124. Power supply/battery
125. How ChefBot’s hardware works’?
126. Summary
127. Questions
128. Further reading
129. Interfacing Actuators and Sensors to the Robot Controller
130. Technical requirements
131. Interfacing DC geared motor to Tiva C LaunchPad
132. Differential wheeled robot
133. Installing Energia IDE
134. Motor interfacing code
135. Interfacing quadrature encoder with Tiva C Launchpad
136. Processing encoder data
137. Quadrature encoder interfacing code
138. Working with Dynamixel actuators
139. Working with ultrasonic distance sensors
140. Interfacing HC-SR04 to Tiva C LaunchPad
141. Working of HC-SR04
142. Interfacing Code of Tiva C Launchpad
143. Interfacing Tiva C LaunchPad with Python
144. Working with the IR proximity sensor
145. Working with Inertial Measurement Units
146. Inertial navigation
147. Interfacing MPU 6050 with Tiva C LaunchPad
148. Setting the MPU 6050 library in Energia
149. Interfacing code of Energia
150. Summary
151. Questions
152. Further reading
153. Interfacing Vision Sensors with ROS
154. Technical requirements
155. List of robotic vision sensors and image libraries
156. Pixy2/CMUcam5
157. Logitech C920 webcam
158. Kinect 360
159. Intel RealSense D400 series
160. Orbbec Astra depth sensor
161. Introduction to OpenCV, OpenNI, and PCL
162. What is OpenCV?
163. Installation of OpenCV from the source code in Ubuntu
164. Reading and displaying an image using the Python-OpenCV interface
165. Capturing from the web camera
166. What is OpenNI?
167. Installing OpenNI in Ubuntu
168. What is PCL?
169. Programming Kinect with Python using ROS, OpenCV, and OpenNI
170. How to launch the OpenNI driver
171. The ROS interface with OpenCV
172. Creating a ROS package with OpenCV support
173. Displaying Kinect images using Python, ROS, and cv_bridge
174. Interfacing Orbbec Astra with ROS
175. Installing the Astra–ROS driver
176. Working with point clouds using Kinect, ROS, OpenNI, and PCL
177. Opening the device and generating a point cloud
178. Conversion of point cloud data to laser scan data
179. Working with SLAM using ROS and Kinect
180. Summary
181. Questions
182. Further reading
183. Building ChefBot Hardware and the Integration of Software
184. Technical requirements
185. Building ChefBot hardware
186. Configuring ChefBot PC and setting ChefBot ROS packages
187. Interfacing ChefBot sensors to the Tiva-C LaunchPad
188. Embedded code for ChefBot
189. Writing a ROS Python driver for ChefBot
190. Understanding ChefBot ROS launch files
191. Working with ChefBot Python nodes and launch files
192. Working with SLAM on ROS to build a map of the room
193. Working with ROS localization and navigation
194. Summary
195. Questions
196. Further reading
197. Designing a GUI for a Robot Using Qt and Python
198. Technical requirements
199. Installing Qt on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
200. Working with Python bindings of Qt
201. PyQt
202. Installing PyQt in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
203. PySide
204. Installing PySide on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
205. Working with PyQt and PySide
206. Introducing Qt Designer
207. Qt signals and slots
208. Converting a UI file into Python code
209. Adding a slot definition to PyQt code
210. Operation of the Hello World GUI application
211. Working with ChefBot’s control GUI
212. Installing and working with rqt in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
213. Summary
214. Questions
215. Further reading
216. Assessments
217. Chapter 1, Getting Started with the Robot Operating System
218. Chapter 2, Understanding the Basics of Differential Robots
219. Chapter 3, Modeling the Differential Drive Robot
220. Chapter 4, Simulating a Differential Drive Robot Using ROS
221. Chapter 5, Designing ChefBot Hardware and Circuits
222. Chapter 6, Interfacing Actuators and Sensors to the Robot Controller
223. Chapter 7, Interfacing Vision Sensors with ROS
224. Chapter 8, Building ChefBot Hardware and Integration of Software
225. Chapter 9, Designing a GUI for a Robot Using Qt and Python
226. Other Books You May Enjoy
227. Leave a review – let other readers know what you think

Author Biography

Lentin Joseph is an author and robotics entrepreneur from India. He runs a robotics software company called Qbotics Labs in India. He has 7 years of experience in the robotics domain primarily in ROS, OpenCV, and PCL. He has authored four books in ROS, namely, Learning Robotics using Python, Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming, ROS Robotics Projects, and Robot Operating System for Absolute Beginners. He is currently pursuing his master’s in Robotics from India and is also doing research at Robotics Institute, CMU, USA.