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Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming

You're reading from   Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming Design, build, and simulate complex robots using the Robot Operating System

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Product type Paperback
Published in Feb 2018
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781788478953
Length 580 pages
Edition 2nd Edition
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Authors (2):
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Lentin Joseph Lentin Joseph
Author Profile Icon Lentin Joseph
Lentin Joseph
Jonathan Cacace Jonathan Cacace
Author Profile Icon Jonathan Cacace
Jonathan Cacace
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Table of Contents (17) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Introduction to ROS FREE CHAPTER 2. Getting Started with ROS Programming 3. Working with 3D Robot Modeling in ROS 4. Simulating Robots Using ROS and Gazebo 5. Simulating Robots Using ROS and V-REP 6. Using the ROS MoveIt! and Navigation Stack 7. Working with pluginlib, Nodelets, and Gazebo Plugins 8. Writing ROS Controllers and Visualization Plugins 9. Interfacing I/O Boards, Sensors, and Actuators to ROS 10. Programming Vision Sensors Using ROS, Open CV, and PCL 11. Building and Interfacing Differential Drive Mobile Robot Hardware in ROS 12. Exploring the Advanced Capabilities of ROS-MoveIt! 13. Using ROS in MATLAB and Simulink 14. ROS for Industrial Robots 15. Troubleshooting and Best Practices in ROS 16. Other Books You May Enjoy

Understanding robot modeling using xacro


The flexibility of URDF reduces when we work with complex robot models. Some of the main features that URDF is missing are simplicity, reusability, modularity, and programmability.

If someone wants to reuse a URDF block 10 times in his robot description, he can copy and paste the block 10 times. If there is an option to use this code block and make multiple copies with different settings, it will be very useful while creating the robot description.

The URDF is a single file and we can't include other URDF files inside it. This reduces the modular nature of the code. All code should be in a single file, which reduces the code's simplicity.

Also, if there is some programmability, such as adding variables, constants, mathematical expressions, and conditional statements, in the description language, it will be more user-friendly.

The robot modeling using xacro meets all of these conditions. Some of the main features of xacro are as follows:

  • Simplify URDF:...
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