Note: This tutorial assumes you have completed the introductory ROS tutorials.
(!) Please ask about problems and questions regarding this tutorial on answers.ros.org. Don't forget to include in your question the link to this page, the versions of your OS & ROS, and also add appropriate tags.

Setting up a Mobile Robot with ROS

Description: How to set up your custom mobile robot in ROS

Tutorial Level: INTERMEDIATE

Movement

You custom base should subscribe to a topic called cmd_vel with message type geometry_msgs/Twist, and should interpret it as the movement command.

linear.x should point forwards, and should be interpreted as meters per second.

angular.z should be interpreted as angular velocity in the xy plane, and should be interpreted in radians per second. positive values should be interpreted as left or counterclockwise (from above).

Your base is free to interpret these commands in any way it chooses, and it may disregard or reinterpret commands that are not possible; for example you may ignore the vertical movement component if your base cannot fly.

Odometry

Wiki: ROS/Tutorials/MobileBase (last edited 2011-10-11 02:26:38 by AustinHendrix)