Great Eric! That is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. Nice analysis in the Ranger Review API. :-) What about the vision-ptz and ranger-tilt actuators? Any Suggestion? I'll keep you informed about the advances in the erratic node. Regards. On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 12:46 PM, Eric Perko wrote: > 2010/12/20 Pablo Iņigo Blasco > >> Hi Brian, Anton and ROS community. >> >> Our group is working with erratic robots. As we talkedthe ua_erratic_player package is the current official erratic package. So >> we've been working with it for a while. However it has some lacks, e.g. we >> can't read sonar sensor values and we can't use neither the vision-ptz >> actuator nor the ranger-tilt-actuator. >> >> Given that the node implementation uses the player framework it's >> relatively easy to extend it and add such functionality. We did it but now >> we have got some doubts about how the design the erratic-node interface >> following ROS conventions: >> >> - There isn't a standard sonar array message (like e.g. LaserScan.msg), is >> it? Such kind of message may not have sense since sonar array may not be >> considered a device itself and it usually has a custom arrangement. e.g. The >> erratic robot has 8 sonar sensors but they aren't regularly arranged (in the >> same way as laserscans are: angle_min,angle_mas,angle_increment,etc). In the >> other hand 8 topics of type (Header/float) don't look a good solution. We're >> planning to extend the erratic urdf by adding the sonar devices frames and >> creating a message like this: >> Header >> string[] frames >> float[] ranges >> > > There is actually a standardized message for a sonar. > > http://www.ros.org/doc/api/sensor_msgs/html/msg/Range.html > > Should be available in unstable and Diamondback once it's released. > > See > http://www.ros.org/wiki/sensor_msgs/Reviews/2010-10-04_Ranger_Proposal_API_Review for > how we envisioned using that message to send out a "RangeArray". Basically, > individual Range message for each sonar, letting tf handle the fact that > they have different orientations and locations. > > - Eric > > >> >> - Regarding the vision-ptz actuator. What would be a good way to send >> commands? JointArray + robot_state_publisher? Maybe a look_at command topic >> of type Point3D?? >> - For the ranger-tilt actuator I guess is better a topic of type >> (Header/float). >> >> What do you think about this? Suggestion, correction or Ideas are welcome. >> >> Thanks in advance. >> Regards. >> >> -- >> Pablo Iņigo Blasco. >> Computer Architecture Department. Universidad de Sevilla (Spain) >> http://es.linkedin.com/in/pibgeus | http://geus.wordpress.com >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> ros-users mailing list >> ros-users@code.ros.org >> https://code.ros.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-users >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > ros-users mailing list > ros-users@code.ros.org > https://code.ros.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-users > > -- Pablo Iņigo Blasco. Computer Architecture Department. Universidad de Sevilla (Spain) http://es.linkedin.com/in/pibgeus | http://geus.wordpress.com