Talks - Kat Scott: Open Source Robotics with Python: Learn Robotics with No Robot Required

ROS (Robot Operating System) is one of the most widely used open source robotics frameworks, running primarily on Linux/Ubuntu with Python and C++ support

Basic ROS concepts include:

• Nodes: Individual programs in a directed graph
• Topics: Pub/sub messaging system for data transfer
• Services: Synchronous function calls
• Actions: Long-running service calls

Robot simulators like Gazebo allow learning robotics without physical hardware by providing:

• Physics simulation
• Sensor simulation
• Virtual testing environment
• Debugging capabilities

Robot programming follows the sense-think-act paradigm:

• Sensors collect environmental data
• Code processes sensor information
• Robot acts based on processed data

Key ROS development concepts:

• Packages organize code and dependencies
• Workspaces manage development environment
• Message types define data structures
• CLI tools help debug and monitor robots

To move a robot requires:

• Publishing velocity commands (twist messages)
• Continuous command updates
• Reading odometry for position feedback
• Handling sensor input for obstacle avoidance

ROS provides extensive tooling:

• Command line interfaces
• Topic inspection
• Message type introspection
• Logging capabilities

Development best practices:

• Use virtual environments
• Leverage simulators for testing
• Follow package structure conventions
• Handle hardware limitations appropriately