Effective Robotics Programming with ROS - Third Edition

Using Arduino to add sensors and actuators

Arduino is an open source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

The following image shows how an Arduino board looks:

ROS can use this type of device with the rosserial package. Basically, Arduino is connected to the computer using a serial connection, and data is transmitted using this port. With rosserial, you can also use a lot of devices controlled by a serial connection, for example, GPS and servo controllers.

First, we need to install ...