[ros-users] ROS - Where to start/viable options etc

[mark]

Hi Group,

Just looking for some advise here on how I can best use ROS

Where I am now:

At the moment I've hand crafted s/w. It's broken up into two main parts 
- the lower level stuff (Running on a SH7032 chip) to control the 
robot's hardware and communicate with the host system, all reactive 
behaviours (avoid, escape et al). And the Host system higher level 
functions (Navigation, Path planning, Mapping etc). More info at 
_http://toeminator.com/Toeminator/ToeminatorIndex.htm_

Wants:
I'm looking to experiment with the ROS, the point I'd like to get to is 
have a visual UI of my robots environment, ideally using SLAM (I'm not 
sure what modules there are for sonar data?) and replicate the host side 
of the system. To that end I wondered if anyone could give me some 
starting points. I've had a quick look at the tutorials and loaded the 
s/w onto a virtual box.

I would guess my simplest starting point would be to develop something 
that would sit between the current server (Sends/receives data to/from 
the robot) and the ROS. Which is where I get somewhat lost. What do I 
need to develop? Is there a common ROS message format? What 
packages/modules should I be looking to use to get something tangible up 
and running? Is there a "Hello ROS" starting point I could usefully use. 
Or am I barking up the completely wrong tree?

Many Thanks

Mark

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