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The State of Robotics - August 2020

So that’s the summer gone (hopefully, that heat was awful). Or winter if that’s where you are. Seasons change and so does the state of robotics. Fortunately, that’s what we’re here for. Before we get into it, as ever, If you’re working on any robotics projects that you’d like us to talk about, be sure to get in touch.

Tutorial: Getting Started with ROS

ROS, the Robot Operating System, is the platform of choice for robot development. However, the breadth and depth of existing documentation can be daunting for the ROS beginner. Where should you start learning about ROS 2 on Ubuntu? All robots based on ROS and ROS 2 are programmed using five simple but core constructs: In this tutorial and associated video we’ll introduce these concepts with simulated robots.

The State of Robotics - July 2020

We know a lot of you are on vacation so we’ll keep this month’s State of Robotics edition short and sweet. Looking for an easy way to get familiar with ROS 2? We recently published a few helpers on how to simulate robots with turtlesim to help our readers get a rolling start on ROS2. For something that carries a little more punch, follow our tutorial on simulating a TurtleBot3.

Robotics Recap: Learning, Programming & Snapping ROS 2

Robotics@Canonical puts a strong focus on the migration from ROS to ROS 2. ROS 2 benefits from many improvements, especially robot security. Our goal is to make it easy for you to transition to ROS 2, whether you’re completely new to ROS or a seasoned engineer retooling for a new environment. Your new platform should be secure-by-default, and we expect you’ll need to pivot between different environments as you migrate from ROS to ROS 2.

Go for ROS

If you started reading this post thinking I would explain why you should go for ROS when building robots, think again. To be fair, that topic deserves a post of its own. But for this article, I’ll be using Go in the context of Golang. As in the Go programming language. As in the one designed by Google with an adorable Gopher for a mascot. Specifically, we will talk about ROS client libraries for the Go programming language; their features, their advantages, and what gaps still remain.

Robotics pages on Ubuntu: bridging the gap

Today, 10/04/2020, new robotics pages went live on ubuntu.com. We want to show our involvement, our stance and our support for ROS and robotics. These three pages cover what we do in the robotics space, Canonical’s involvement with ROS and Open Robotics, and the relevance of community in the field of robotics. Our intention is to be another entry point for new users to involve themselves and to enable them to build robots with ROs on Ubuntu.

The State of Robotics - March 2020

Damn it March. 2020 was doing so well. The biggest news last month was the dramatic escalation of COVID-19. We won’t go into any detail, I’m sure you’re seeing enough of that. But due to the outbreak, the state of robotics this March has been, heartwarming. We have seen a surge in online learning platforms, companies, startups and communities rising to the challenge.

Steps to maximise robotics security with Ubuntu

The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a popular open-source platform for advanced robotics. Its flexibility and ease-of-use make it well-suited to a wide array of robotics applications – however, these robots are not always sufficiently protected against security threats. Opportunistic attacks are by far the most prevalent, and robots with inadequate ROS security make tempting targets for bad actors.