Best book about ROS with Python

books

asked 2017-08-11 12:37:00 -0500

pitosalas
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I know there are lots of online resources but I am looking for a book (online or paper) which has the concepts and lots of examples of using ROS with Python. (The book called "ROS with Python isn't really about that at all). I also know about http://wiki.ros.org/Books but those are all self-promoted. Can anyone recommend a book they liked? Thanks!

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You should look at Programming Robots with ROS: A Practical Introduction to the Robot Operating System / Edition 1. That's a great one, with examples.

allenh1 ( 2017-08-11 12:59:26 -0500 )edit

Yes I am familiar with it, and I agree with you. I was looking if there were other key ones that I hadn't picked up!

pitosalas ( 2017-08-11 14:30:43 -0500 )edit

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answered 2017-08-11 16:46:02 -0500

jayess
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updated 2017-08-12 16:47:09 -0500

This is a tough one to answer as it's highly subjective. But here's my go.

I think that you're going to find that there really aren't any great books available for ROS and Python~~, or really ROS in general~~ (as @gvdhoorn pointed out in the comments, there are great books for ROS, I just hadn't found them). Most books (for ROS and Python) just seem to skim over the basics, reiterate the tutorials, or introduce more "advanced" concepts but in a manner without much depth (IMHO).

I've read Programming Robots with ROS: A Practical Introduction to the Robot Operating System, ROS Robotics By Example, A Gentle Introduction to ROS (C++), and a couple others that I can't recall.

Every time I read a book about ROS (and Python) I feel like I'm basically just going through the tutorials in a slightly different way. This can be great if you're new and looking to reinforce the basics but not helpful if you're trying to use ROS (and Python) professionally. However, the two "best" books about ROS (and Python) that I've found are the ROS by Example INDIGO Volumes 1 and 2 by R. Patrick Goebel.

There are some really great examples using SMACH, behavior trees, muxing, using the nav stack, etc.

Note: Now, this isn't to disparage the authors of the books, but rather just an observation that I've made on my own. I think that part of the reason is that ROS is very large with a huge ecosystem. Couple that with the different programming languages in use with ROS and the sheer number of its capabilities and that makes it difficult to write an in-depth book without making a giant tome.

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I agree with you. And it's such a broad system, the whole ROS ecosystem. And while there are a lot of tutorials and wiki pages still overall it's not well documented at all. Thanks!

pitosalas ( 2017-08-11 20:02:03 -0500 )edit

I don't know about Python, but I don't agree with the general idea of "there are no good ROS books".

Please take a look at ROS: The Complete Reference vol1 and vol2.

They might be expensive ..

gvdhoorn ( 2017-08-12 03:05:16 -0500 )edit

.. but I think you'll find it hard to maintain the "it's basically the tutorials, rehashed" with these books.

gvdhoorn ( 2017-08-12 03:05:38 -0500 )edit

@gvdhoorn They look good, but wow, for that price I could BUY a turtlebot3 (almost?!) I would definitely want to preview them before spending the money.

pitosalas ( 2017-08-12 09:25:05 -0500 )edit

To be fair, I didn't say "there are no good ROS books." Except for the books I mentioned, I hadn't found books that get you beyond the basics with ROS and Python. I've found that reading the source code of ROS and others' packages to be more beneficial (and economical).