A student project using robotic operating system (ROS) for undergraduate research

Abstract

In this student led undergraduate research paper we present a robotics project using the Robot Operating System (ROS). The purpose of this student paper is to document their learning path and steps taken for a project using three related, yet independent student projects so that others might benefit from the details. The students worked together initially to learn enough about ROS and it's development environment so that they might employ it. Thus far the use of ROS has primarily been focused on graduate studies where improvements to the underlying algorithms and techniques have been made. In this undergraduate approach no such attempts are made in improving the foundation algorithms already developed by top researchers and schools. Rather, the students employed published techniques to provide the foundation of their work. Specifically, the project used the Turtle-bot architecture and modules within ROS to create the components of a cooperative robotic mission. The crux of the mission is for one of the robots to autonomously explore and map an area of the engineering building while leaving bread-crumbs behind for another robot to follow. A third robot comes behind the second and uses the information from the first two to locate tags distributed throughout the building. Each student made a portion of this project, that could stand alone, so that others could use these individual modules and details for their own projects without redoing what had been done here. The three parts were broken into mapping, tag recognition with robot leader follower operations, and object location and RF tag reading. It enabled students to use the existing sensors on the turtlebot, while incorporating new devices to complete their particular missions. In this paper the students detail the learning path that was required to bring their individual technologies for their sub project to fruition. Using their initial code and techniques will enable others to duplicate and expand at a quicker pace. We have already seen this in the second semester as new students are tackling tasks of increased difficulty building on what was done here. Furthermore, the students detail the methods used and the code that they wrote to accomplish the tasks described. Finally, the students identified the technologies required to learn and the research they did as a criteria of merit. Additionally, a series of Youtube instructional videos and a file repository are available for others to use. All of the code developed is given on google drives and GitHub for others to use and is referenced at the end of this paper.