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Blog posts tagged "robotics"

Building ROS 2 snaps with Colcon

The snapcraft CLI has supported building ROS1 snaps for a while via the catkin plugin. We supported the ROS2 betas via the ament plugin, but that was before Open Robotics had a ROS2 package repository setup, which meant that the ament plugin built the ROS2 underlay from source, and it was predictably dreadfully slow. However,

The forecast is robots

Robots are an increasingly important part of our lives, in more ways than we realise. I’m not talking just about Roombas, or the toy robots that inhabit the wish lists of the world’s children (and the young at heart). Robots are increasingly behind the scenes, powering the modern world we experience daily. From clothing to

Apellix engineers safer work environments with Ubuntu powered aerial robotics

In 2016, 16% of all workplace deaths in the US were attributed to falls. Apellix, a Florida-based start up, who specialise in aerial robotics aims to reduce this number by using their drones in place of workers to complete tasks in elevated or dangerous environments. In tandem, these same aerial robotics can also reduce the

Collaborative robots – Cobots and the changing nature of work

  This is a guest blog by Jamie Branch, Corrosion Engineer at Apellix.  Collaborative robots, or cobots, work side by side with humans to enhance human worker’s ability to perform their job safer, with less monotony and repetitive tasks. Most of us are familiar with industrial robots and it should be no surprise that people

Robots that run Ubuntu

The home for innovators, Ubuntu is a place where developers can create what previously lived solely in the realms of fiction. The internet of things, the cloud, and robots are world changing technologies and they’re all running Ubuntu. With an estimated worldwide spending figure of $103bn by 2020, according to IDC, the field of robotics

Creating the world’s first robotic tennis ball collector with Ubuntu

From manufacturing plants to homes, robots have become a staple in the modern world for making life easier. This ability to boost convenience is what the startup company, Tennibot, is looking to bring to tennis courts around the world. Tennibot is the world’s first robotic tennis ball collector, or alternatively, an autonomous ball boy. 

BotsAndUs build a social robot on Ubuntu

As robotics become increasingly prevalent in all sectors and expand outside the manufacturing industry, it is no surprise that IDC predicts worldwide spending on robotics to reach $103bn in 2018. A UK based startup, BotsAndUs, are looking to capitalise on this opportunity and have created an advanced social robot – Bo – primarily for use

Your first robot: Sharing with others [5/5]

This is the fifth (and final) blog post in this series about creating your first robot with ROS and Ubuntu Core. In the previous post we discussed methods of control, did a little math, and wrote the ROS driver for our robot. But it still required several nodes to be running at once, and sharing

Your first robot: The driver [4/5]

This is the fourth blog post in this series about creating your first robot with ROS and Ubuntu Core. In the previous post we worked on getting data out of the wireless controller and into ROS in a format meant for controlling differential drive robots like ours: the Twist message. Today we’re going to create

Your first robot: The controller [3/5]

This is the third blog post in this series about creating your first robot with ROS and Ubuntu Core. In the previous post you were introduced to the Robot Operating System (ROS), and got your robot moving by ROSifying one of the CamJam worksheets. Today we’re going to move beyond the CamJam worksheets, and work

Your first robot: Introduction to the Robot Operating System [2/5]

This is the second blog post in this series about creating your first robot with ROS and Ubuntu Core. In the previous post we walked through all the hardware necessary to follow this series, and introduced Ubuntu Core, the operating system for IoT devices. We installed it on our Raspberry Pi, and used it to

Your first robot: A beginner’s guide to ROS and Ubuntu Core [1/5]

Some time ago I created a blog/video series that walked the reader through creating a prototype using the Robot Operating System (ROS) and taking it to production using Ubuntu Core. However, that series was intended more for robotics professionals; it assumed quite a bit of ROS knowledge, and required some costly equipment (the robot was

Using snaps to advance robotics development

Robotics development has seen great expansion in recent years. Some roboticists strongly believe that this expansion is not only due to the rise of inexpensive sensors and actuators but also to the new software trends enabling code sharing and reuse at a much larger scale than ever before. We spoke to Mohamed Saad Ibn Seddik,

Robot development made easy with Husarion CORE2-ROS & Ubuntu – part 2

This is the second post in a series of two by guest bloggers from Husarion; Domink Nowak and Michal Zieliński. The first blog can be read here. This blog picks up on why Husarion use Ubuntu… Ubuntu has a very wide collection of packages, both in official repositories and supplied by third-parties. For example, the Robot Operating System

Robot development made easy with Husarion CORE2-ROS running Ubuntu

This is the first in a series of two posts by guest blogger; Dominik Nowak, CEO at Husarion. We’ve seen many breakthroughs happening in the IT industry over the last decade. Arguably the most meaningful one on the consumer side was the adoption of smartphones and mobile development. What’s the next big thing, now that

Ubuntu Core: Making a factory image with private snaps

This is a follow-up to the ROS prototype to production on Ubuntu Core series to answer a question I received: “What if I want to make an image for the factory, but don’t want to make my snaps public?” This question is of course not robotics-specific, and neither is its answer. In this post we’ll