Chapter 1. Getting Started with ROS Robotics Application Development

Robotics is one of the upcoming technologies that can change the world. Robots can replace people in many ways, and we are all afraid of them stealing our jobs. One thing is for sure: robotics will be one of the influential technologies in the future. When a new technology gains momentum, the opportunities in that field also increase. This means that robotics and automation can generate lot of job opportunities in the future.

One of the main areas in robotics that can provide mass job opportunities is robotics software development. As we all know, software gives life to a robot or any machine. We can expand a robot's capabilities through software. If a robot exists, its capabilities such as control, sensing, and intelligence are realized using software.

Robotics software involves a combination of related technologies, such as computer vision, artificial intelligence, and control theory. In short, developing software for a robot is not a simple task; it may require expertise in many fields.

If you're looking for mobile application development in iOS or Android, there is a software development kit (SDK) available to build applications in it, but what about robots? Is there any generic software framework available? Yes. One of the more popular robotics software frameworks is called Robot Operating System (ROS).

In this chapter, we will take a look at an abstract concept of ROS and how to install it. The entire book is dedicated to ROS projects, so this chapter will be a kick-start guide for those projects.

The following topics are going to be covered in this chapter:

So let's get started discussing ROS.