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
(text/plain)