ros Getting started with ros

Remarks

Versions

Hello World Publisher

Create a workspace

mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src
catkin_init_workspace
 

Build your workspace

cd ~/catkin_ws/
catkin_make
 

Source your setup file

source devel/setup.bash
 

Create a new package named hello_world with some basic dependencies

catkin_create_pkg hello_world std_msgs rospy roscpp
 

Navigate to your src directory and create a new file called talker.cpp

cd hello_world/src
touch talker.cpp
 

Edit your new file and paste this code in to publish a "hello world" message

#include "ros/ros.h"
#include "std_msgs/String.h"

#include <sstream>

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  ros::init(argc, argv, "talker");

  ros::NodeHandle n;

  ros::Publisher chatter_pub = n.advertise<std_msgs::String>("chatter", 1000);

  ros::Rate loop_rate(10);

  int count = 0;
  while (ros::ok())
  {
    std_msgs::String msg;

    std::stringstream ss;
    ss << "hello world " << count;
    msg.data = ss.str();

    ROS_INFO("%s", msg.data.c_str());

    chatter_pub.publish(msg);

    ros::spinOnce();

    loop_rate.sleep();
    ++count;
  }

  return 0;
}
 

Return to the root of your package directory

cd ..
 

Add/uncomment these lines to your CMakeLists.txt

catkin_package(
 INCLUDE_DIRS include
 LIBRARIES hello_world
#  CATKIN_DEPENDS roscpp rospy std_msgs
#  DEPENDS system_lib
)

include_directories(include ${catkin_INCLUDE_DIRS})

add_executable(talker src/talker.cpp)
target_link_libraries(talker ${catkin_LIBRARIES})
add_dependencies(talker hello_world_generate_messages_cpp)
 

Return to the root of your workspace

cd ..
 

Build your new publisher

catkin_make  
 

Source your setup file again so that you have the new package and publisher

source devel/setup.bash
 

Start ROS

roscore
 

Leave roscore running and in a new terminal tab/window, start your publisher

rosrun hello_world talker
 

Leave the publisher running and in ANOTHER new terminal tab/window, echo the output

rostopic echo /chatter
 

Installation

Depending on your target machine, you need to choose a supported ROS Version (or vice-versa). Although ROS installation is well documented in the ROS wiki, It might be confusing to find them. So, here's a table of the ROS Version, target platforms & architecture and the links for the appropriate install guides :

ROS Version	Platform	Arch	Status	Install Guide Link
Kinetic	Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial)	amd64 / i386 / armhf	Supported	Kinetic-Xenial-guide
	Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily)	amd64 / i386	Supported	Kinetic-Wily-guide
	Debian 8 (Jessie)	amd64 / arm64	Supported	Kinetic-Jessie-guide
	OS X (Homebrew)	--	Experimental	Kinetic-Homebrew-guide
	Gentoo	--	Experimental	Kinetic-Gentoo-guide
	OpenEmbedded/Yocto	--	Experimental	Kinetic-Yocto-guide

Work in progress...!