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I've been considering writing my own tutorials because the ones on the wiki are sorely lacking. However, you can learn a lot by looking at and expanding the code given in the tutorials.

The Gazebo simulator is the way to go if you want to work with a virtual robot in ROS. It allows you to build a robot with virtual sensors and program it to respond to those sensors in the same way it would in the real world. It's a very strong tool that the DARPA robotics challenge teams use often. Notice that the Stage simulator (stage ros) is a 2D version that is much easier to use. However, since Gazebo is much more common and well-documented, I'd suggest starting there.

If you've learned the fundamentals of ROS programming (i.e., you know what the code in the tutorials does and can teleoperate a turtle), check out the gazebosim.org tutorials; they've recently been modified and should be quite nice now. You may either follow the tutorials in sequence or go in the following order:

1. Figure out how to incorporate a simple wheeled robot into the gazebo. Write some code to respond to a joystick or keypress by sending commands to the virtual robot. In Gazebo, teleoperate the robot.
2. Attach a laser scanning sensor or a bumper to your virtual robot's world, as well as some obstacles. As you teleoperate the sensor around, you can see the output of the sensor published in ROS.
3. Now that you've created the structure, it's time to create the robot's brains. There's a lot of navigation work already done for a robot with a laser scanner that you can more-or-less plug and play from the move base navigation stack. Alternatively, you will build your own intelligence and habits. When you're not bound by costly hardware, the sky's the limit.

I've been considering writing my own tutorials because the ones on the wiki are sorely lacking. However, you can learn a lot by looking at and expanding the code given in the tutorials.

The Gazebo simulator is the way to go if you want to work with a virtual robot in ROS. It allows you to build a robot with virtual sensors and program it to respond to those sensors in the same way it would in the real world. It's a very strong tool that the DARPA robotics challenge teams use often. Notice that the Stage simulator (stage ros) is a 2D version that is much easier to use. However, since Gazebo is much more common and well-documented, I'd suggest starting there.

If you've learned the fundamentals of ROS programming (i.e., you know what the code in the tutorials does and can teleoperate a turtle), check out the gazebosim.org gazebosim tutorials; they've recently been modified and should be quite nice now. You may either follow the tutorials in sequence or go in the following order:

1. Figure out how to incorporate a simple wheeled robot into the gazebo. Write some code to respond to a joystick or keypress by sending commands to the virtual robot. In Gazebo, teleoperate the robot.
2. Attach a laser scanning sensor or a bumper to your virtual robot's world, as well as some obstacles. As you teleoperate the sensor around, you can see the output of the sensor published in ROS.
3. Now that you've created the structure, it's time to create the robot's brains. There's a lot of navigation work already done for a robot with a laser scanner that you can more-or-less plug and play from the move base navigation stack. Alternatively, you will build your own intelligence and habits. When you're not bound by costly hardware, the sky's the limit.

I've been considering writing my own tutorials because the ones on the wiki are sorely lacking. However, you can learn a lot by looking at and expanding the code given in the tutorials.

The Gazebo simulator is the way to go if you want to work with a virtual robot in ROS. It allows you to build a robot with virtual sensors and program it to respond to those sensors in the same way it would in the real world. It's a very strong tool that the DARPA robotics challenge teams use often. Notice that the Stage simulator (stage ros) is a 2D version that is much easier to use. However, since Gazebo is much more common and well-documented, I'd suggest starting there.

If you've learned the fundamentals of ROS programming (i.e., you know what the code in the tutorials does and can teleoperate a turtle), turtle by Fahad khan), check out the gazebosim tutorials; they've recently been modified and should be quite nice now. You may either follow the tutorials in sequence or go in the following order:

1. Figure out how to incorporate a simple wheeled robot into the gazebo. Write some code to respond to a joystick or keypress by sending commands to the virtual robot. In Gazebo, teleoperate the robot.
2. Attach a laser scanning sensor or a bumper to your virtual robot's world, as well as some obstacles. As you teleoperate the sensor around, you can see the output of the sensor published in ROS.
3. Now that you've created the structure, it's time to create the robot's brains. There's a lot of navigation work already done for a robot with a laser scanner that you can more-or-less plug and play from the move base navigation stack. Alternatively, you will build your own intelligence and habits. When you're not bound by costly hardware, the sky's the limit.

I've been considering writing my own tutorials because the ones on the wiki are sorely lacking. However, you can learn a lot by looking at and expanding the code given in the tutorials.

The Gazebo simulator is the way to go if you want to work with a virtual robot in ROS. It allows you to build a robot with virtual sensors and program it to respond to those sensors in the same way it would in the real world. It's a very strong tool that the DARPA robotics challenge teams use often. Notice that the Stage simulator (stage ros) is a 2D version that is much easier to use. However, since Gazebo is much more common and well-documented, I'd suggest starting there.

If you've learned the fundamentals of ROS programming (i.e., you know what the code in the tutorials does and can teleoperate a turtle by Fahad khan), check out the gazebosim tutorials; they've recently been modified and should be quite nice now. You may either follow the tutorials in sequence or go in the following order:

1. Figure out how to incorporate a simple wheeled robot into the gazebo. Write some code to respond to a joystick or keypress by sending commands to the virtual robot. In Gazebo, teleoperate the robot.
2. Attach a laser scanning sensor or a bumper to your virtual robot's world, as well as some obstacles. As you teleoperate the sensor around, you can see the output of the sensor published in ROS.
3. Now that you've created the structure, it's time to create the robot's brains. There's a lot of navigation work already done for a robot with a laser scanner that you can more-or-less plug and play from the move base navigation stack. Alternatively, you will build your own intelligence and habits. When you're not bound by costly hardware, the sky's the limit.