Servo - December 2014

So, what is this ‘ROS’ you are talking about?

ROS(Robot Operating System) is a collection of libraries, drivers, and other tools for developers to create software for robotic projects. The appliances that come with ROS include visualization, package management, hardware abstraction, and much more. ROS was originally developed by Willow Garage. They were a company in the Bay area of Northern California who worked on robotics and open source software.

Step #2: Installing the Neato Packages

After you set up ROS on your computer, you can now proceed to installing the necessary packages to use the Neato. In the terminal, cd to the src folder in your catkin workspace.

We can now download the neato_robot package written by the fabulous Mike Ferguson.

Be sure you are connected to the Internet, and type in the following:

echo “source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash” >>
~/.bashrc
 git clone https://github.com/mikeferguson/
 neato_robot.git

What About the Neato?

The Neato robot is an autonomous vacuum cleaner developed by Neato Robotics. Not only can this robot clean your floors, it can also be used as an excellent platform for robotic projects. The Neato has an open USB interface that can be easily accessed, as well as an intelligently designed LiDAR. A LiDAR is a rotating laser that scans the environment, giving the robot the ability to avoid obstacles and map its path.

(If you don’t have git installed, install it using: sudo apt-get install git.)

The src directory should now contain a neato_robot folder.

Go back to catkin_ws and run catkin_make.

In this article, we will set up the Neato with ROS Indigo Igloo, and use a simple program to control the robot using a keyboard.

YEARS

What You’ll Need:

• Neato XV- 11 (newer versions such as the XV- 21 have been said to work, as well)

• A laptop running Ubuntu 13. 10 or newer with an active Internet connection

SPECIAL PRICE to celebrate our anniversary!

• A mini-B type USB cord (the longer, the better)

• Some experience with Linux

Step #1: Installing ROS

;575.00*

On your laptop, go to http://wiki.ros.org/indigo/ Installation/Ubuntu and follow the installation instructions. After the install has finished, go through the tutorials — not only will they help you set up ROS on your system, the tutorials will also give you knowledge you will need later on. To use your ROS workspace, you will need to source a setup.bash file every time you start up a terminal.