Hello Udoo Team, I know you are busy. Keep this in your list please. ROS If you make a ROS packages for NEO I believe you will open an entire new source of revenue. Robotics folks are looking for platforms like NEO that can run Linux and still can do the hard real time control for robotics sensors. Here is an example of what I mean ROS BeagleBone " BeagleBone ROS Packages Some ROS Packages designed for the BeagleBone: bb_sharp_ir: BeagleBone Sharp IR sensors ROS Package. bb_dc_motors: ROS package that launches a node to control a DC motor connected to the BeagleBone. bb_mpu9150: BeagleBone ROS package that publishes the Invensense MPU-9150 data into a Topic. bb_altimeter: ROS package for the BeagleBone that publishes the altimeter MPL3115A2 values to a Topic. You would provide ROS packages for the sensors already inside NEO Then other generic to enable data / acquisition and control so needed in robotics. " Some info about ROS " About ROS The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a flexible framework for writing robot software. It is a collection of tools, libraries, and conventions that aim to simplify the task of creating complex and robust robot behavior across a wide variety of robotic platforms. Why? Because creating truly robust, general-purpose robot software is hard. From the robot's perspective, problems that seem trivial to humans often vary wildly between instances of tasks and environments. Dealing with these variations is so hard that no single individual, laboratory, or institution can hope to do it on their own. As a result, ROS was built from the ground up to encourage collaborative robotics software development. For example, one laboratory might have experts in mapping indoor environments, and could contribute a world-class system for producing maps. Another group might have experts at using maps to navigate, and yet another group might have discovered a computer vision approach that works well for recognizing small objects in clutter. ROS was designed specifically for groups like these to collaborate and build upon each other's work, as is described throughout this site. "
Dear JackSilb, porting ROS to UDOO NEO would be surely a boost for the board, but we cannot afford to port it from a time-management point of view. We're looking for solutions implying contractors / volunteers / something in the likes. I also add that if there's someone in this forum which is confident with ROS on ARM boards and willing to work on it, or that has already started such a porting for imx6solox, well, this is the time to show up
Hi Andrea, I replied on another thread. The best would be to post on the ROS Forum. I hope we will find someone skilled to make a UDOO Neo Package. I am imagining that people using ROS for robots without requiring intensive vision processing would love to be able to work with ROS on Neo; sign me up ;-) -Jack
Hey Jack, http://www.udoo.org/ros-on-udoo-neo-dual-quad/ just for you! P.S.: just to explain, yesterday night I followed your suggestion and I had a profitable conversation via email with ROS. Honestly I didn't expect such fast replies (even after 10 PM). The cool thing is that NEO is already compatible, as I discovered - since ROS supports Ubuntu 14.04. The good news is that also DUAL and QUAD are compatible after yesterday, since now each UDOO board is based on 14.04 So you just have to install the packages and follow the instructions (and hopefully, drop some feedback here )
Hi Andrea, it is very cool that the Udoo Team is listening and is taking a look at ROS. I think you can have a winner combination ROS/NEO. I guess I said that already huh ;-) I have no question that ROS can run on the Udoo since it runs on Linux Arm already and plays really nice with Ubuntu. The question is who will port / develop access to the I/Os and in the case of NEO access to the sensors too. You would have a ROS package for each Udoo board. At least NEO. I have a Udoo Quad too, but IMO NEO is probably the way to go first due to the size and integrated sensors. Many applications for robotics with it. Like the links above. Here is what I mean. See example for the Beagle Bone Black http://wiki.ros.org/BeagleBone We would need ROS Packages for the Udoo I/Os and sensors. example: BeagleBone ROS Packages Some ROS Packages designed for the BeagleBone: bb_sharp_ir: BeagleBone Sharp IR sensors ROS Package. bb_dc_motors: ROS package that launches a node to control a DC motor connected to the BeagleBone. bb_mpu9150: BeagleBone ROS package that publishes the Invensense MPU-9150 data into a Topic. bb_altimeter: ROS package for the BeagleBone that publishes the altimeter MPL3115A2 values to a Topic.
Dear Jack, I can confirm I'm taking action in this direction. I hope to have more news to share soon! I'll keep you updated guys
Ciao Andrea, That is awesome. I wish I could know my way around ROS to jump in and port the fucntions that the Udoo Team already provide in Linux. Neo will be my platform to learn ROS ;-) Grazie, -Jack
@JackSilb you just have to create a catkin_package (look at the tutorial) and if you want python and not c++ use python-smbus to communicate with the sensors. You would go through the tutorials any way to learn about ROS.
