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Robot Operating System (ROS)

1. What is ROS

  • ROS is a robotics software framework that runs on top of an operating system and lets multiple programs work together as a coordinated robot system.

  • ROS is not a real operating system. It does not replace Linux or Windows. It runs on top of an OS, just like a web server or browser application.

  • ROS lets us write programs that run and communicate in a structured way, instead of being independent programs. These programs can easily exchange data, coordinate actions, and work together as a system.

Basic ROS System

2. ROS is scalable and dynamic

  • These programs (nodes) can be pieces of code that read data from sensors, or code that receives data from other modules, such as robot movement commands.

  • The underlying mechanism is the publisher/subscriber model, which is highly scalable and dynamic (nodes can be added or removed at any time without changing other components).

  • So instead of one big program, ROS splits a robot system into many small, independent programs.

3. ROS inside single/multiple machines

  • ROS is fundamentally a distributed communication framework

  • ROS can run on a single robot computer or across multiple machines and robots connected over a network.

  • ROS can be used in variety of configurations.

3.1 Sinlge machine(robot)

  • Most basic configuration
Single robot board:
 ├── Camera node
 ├── Motor node
 ├── Navigation node
 └── Sensor node

graph TD

    Camera[Camera Node]
    Motor[Motor Node]
    Navigation[Navigation Node]
    Sensor[Sensor Node]

    Camera <--> Navigation
    Sensor <--> Navigation
    Navigation <--> Motor

3.2 Multiple computers in one robot

  • Very common in real robots (such as Yahboom)
Robot
 ├── MicroROS board (in Yahboom car)-motor,wheels
 └── Raspberry Pi (additional board for computing for LIDAR, Camera)

graph TD

    Robot[Robot]

    MicroROS["MicroROS Board (Yahboom car)\nMotor + Wheels"]
    RPi["Raspberry Pi\nLIDAR + Camera"]

    Robot --> MicroROS
    Robot --> RPi

3.3 Multiple robots on same network

Robot A  ←→  Robot B  ←→  Control Station
  • ROS can distribute nodes across: 
    robots
servers
control Stations


graph LR
A["Robot A (ROS nodes)"] --> S["Server (ROS nodes)"]
B["Robot B (ROS nodes)"] --> S
S --> C["Control Station (ROS nodes)"]

4. Explore more topics below

Publisher/Subscriber Model

ROS2 Material

OpenRMF

Gazebo