[ros-users] Sonar sensor and PTZ actuators on Erratic

[Pablo Iñigo Blasco]

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 <wisesage5001 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2010/12/20 Pablo Iñigo Blasco <pibgeus at gmail.com>
>
>> Hi Brian, Anton and ROS community.
>>
>> Our group is working with erratic robots. As we talked<http://ros-users.122217.n3.nabble.com/erratic-player-vs-ua-erratic-player-td768165.html>the 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 Iñigo Blasco.
>> Computer Architecture Department. Universidad de Sevilla (Spain)
>> http://es.linkedin.com/in/pibgeus | http://geus.wordpress.com
>>
>>
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-- 
Pablo Iñigo Blasco.
Computer Architecture Department. Universidad de Sevilla (Spain)
http://es.linkedin.com/in/pibgeus | http://geus.wordpress.com
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