ROS Programming: Building Powerful Robots

Using a joystick or a gamepad

I am sure that, at one point or another, you have used a joystick or a gamepad of a video console.

A joystick is nothing more than a series of buttons and potentiometers. With this device, you can perform or control a wide range of actions.

In ROS, a joystick is used to telecontrol a robot to change its velocity or direction.

Before we start, we are going to install some packages. To install these packages in Ubuntu, execute the following command:

    $ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-joystick-drivers
    $ rosstack profile & rospack profile  

In these packages, you will find code to learn how to use the joystick and ...