Hi Adam,

I'm happy that you announced this package because we were planning to do the
very same thing here at ELTE (Hungary) during the next semester. I nearly
have any time with 7 exams still ahead of me but I may contact you after
looking through this package.

I'm really interested in using Arduino-compatible devices with ROS. The
first thing is that it's quite cheap and - though I'm not really an
electronics-guy - easy to self-design, self-build.

Keep up the good work!

Regards,
Bence Magyar
ELTE Information Science

2011/1/5 Adam Stambler <adasta@gmail.com>

> Hello Folks,
>
>      I am proud to announce a new tool for using Arduinos and AVR
> processors in ROS projects.  avr_bridge
> <http://www.ros.org/wiki/avr_bridge>allows the AVR processors to directly
> publish or subscribe to ROS topics. This allows everything from Arduinos to
> custom robot boards to be first class ROS components.  This package can be
> found in Rutgers' new rutgers-ros-pkg<http://github.com/rutgers/rutgers-ros-pkg>.
>
>
>     avr_bridge is meant to simplify the use of an Arduino and avr
> processors in a ROS based robot by providing a partial ROS implementation in
> avr c++. In hobbyist robotics, these microcontrollers are often used to read
> sensors and perform low level motor control. Every time a robot needs to
> interface with an AVR board, a new communication system is written.
> Typically they all use a usb-to-serial converter and either a custom binary
> or text based protocol. AVR bridge replaces these custom protocols with an
> automatically generated ROS communication stack that allows the AVR
> processors to directly publish or subscribe to ROS topics.
>     avr_bridge has already been deployed on Rutger's PIPER robot
> <http://ieee.rutgers.edu/content/piper>and in the communications layer for
> a Sparkfun imu <http://www.ros.org/wiki/imu_9drazor> driver. In the next
> few weeks, it will be deployed on our newest robot, the Rutgers IGVC entry<http://ieee.rutgers.edu/content/igvc>as the communication layer on all of our custom, low level hardware.   By
> using avr_bridge to communicate with our PCs, we have cut down on redundant
> code and simplified the driver by allowing the avr_processor to directly
> publish msgs.   It is our hope that by extending ROS to the 8-bit
> microcontroller level we will see more open-source hardware that can be
> quickly integrated into cheap, custom robot platforms.
>
> Cheers,
> Adam Stambler
> Rutgers University
>
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