Program Robots Like a Boss
Have you ever wanted to control your Arduino board from a Raspberry Pi (or your computer), using only Python and not the Arduino language? Here comes pyFirmata, a Python library based on the Firmata protocol. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to setup pyFirmata and write complete programs using real hardware. You’ll need: An … Read more
You may be wondering what are the differences between ROS1 and ROS2. And what does it change for you? ROS1 vs ROS2, let’s begin! In this article I’ll give you a practical overview of what has changed, and what’s new. I’ll try to be brief. Not too many details, not too much theory, but a … Read more
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a ROS2 Cpp Node. The code will be simple to focus on the basics, and get a base structure for all your future ROS2 Cpp programs. After a minimal running example I’ll show you what is the recommended way to write your node, using Object Oriented Programming … Read more
So, you’ve decided to learn ROS2. Great! And now, you wonder where to start. That’s quite normal to feel lost at the beginning. ROS is not an easy subject. It’s big and diverse, and you won’t become an expert in 2 days. In this post I’ll give you some tips about what you should focus … Read more
In this tutorial we’re going to write a minimal ROS2 Python node, with no extra functionality, just to see how to start writing any of your ROS2 program. This code will serve as a base structure, and then you’ll be able to add any ROS2 functionality you want: topics, services, parameters, and so on. First … Read more
In this tutorial you will see how to use YAML to handle your ROS2 parameters. Why using YAML for ROS2 params So, you start to write a ROS2 application and as you progress, you add more nodes, more features, more settings. You use ROS2 params in your nodes because that’s a nice way to set … Read more
In this tutorial I’ll show you how to store an array into the Arduino EEPROM. First we’ll look at arrays composed of int numbers (2 bytes each), and then we’ll do the same with long numbers (4 bytes each). I strongly advise you to check how to store an int number into EEPROM before reading … Read more
So, you’re using the digitalWrite() function in most of your Arduino projects. But you may come to a point when this function is too slow, because you have to use it a lot, and with a high frequency. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to make a fast digitalWrite(), so you can speed up … Read more
In this tutorial I’ll show you how to program your Arduino board from an Ubuntu virtual machine, using VirtualBox. For some reasons, you could want to work with Arduino from your Ubuntu guest instead of your Windows 10 host. In this case, you’ll have a few things to configure before it can work. Nothing really … Read more
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a custom ROS action, and import it in your code (Python and Cpp). Using ROS actions is quite handy when you need an asynchronous client/server mechanism. You can of course use some of the existing Action definitions, but oftentimes you’ll need some sort of customization. Setup the … Read more