ROS will not work without wheel encoders?
Hello all,
Please forgive my ignorance. This is my first time building a robot using ROS, and I'm really, really eager to get it going.
I'm using the Wild Thumper 6WD platform/chassis with differential drive. Another user has just informed me that ROS will not work—that I won't be able to proceed with my robot build (as is my understanding of the implications of his statements)—without wheel encoders?
Is this true? Is there any part of the build process I can work on without having wheel encoders? The Wild Thumper chassis does not come with encoders out of the box, although they are available from Pololu. However the chassis itself was pretty expensive, for my student budget, ($250 usd) and while I was already planning to get a pair of those encoders, it will be several weeks, if not months, before I can afford to do so.
Please, any advice about how to proceed with other parts of the build that aren't blocked by a lack of wheel encoders (if it is, in fact, true that one can't build a working ROS robot without them), or any advice regarding work-arounds for this issue (if it is an issue), would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance!