6 posts tagged with "ros"

You leave your ROSbot on the desk, walk away to grab a coffee, and when you turn around you hear a faint whirr. The wheels are spinning, the robot is inching toward the edge of the table, and you catch it half a second before gravity does. Once your heart rate settles, one question stays stuck in your head: who just sent it /cmd_vel?

If you have ever shared a lab network with more than one ROSbot, you already know the answer: two robots listening on the same /cmd_vel, no namespaces to keep them apart, and whoever boots last wins. We have heard that story from users often enough, and lived it ourselves a few times, that fixing it became one of the headline goals for this release.

Today we are shipping ROSbot ROS v1.0.0, the first stable, unified release of the ROSbot software stack, covering both ROSbot 3 and ROSbot XL. Highlights:

• Full ROS 2 namespace support across the driver and the firmware.
• Zenoh networking for fleets that need to scale beyond one robot on one Wi-Fi.
• Shared ROS 2 config across your accessories: set the namespace, middleware, and domain once on the ROSbot, and it cascades to every chained Husarion snap.
• Up to 10× higher sensor and control loop rates thanks to a firmware-wide scheduling rewrite.
• A led_strip topic (ROSbot XL) that lets you drive the LED panel from your own ROS 2 node.
• Cartesian gamepad control of the manipulator (ROSbot XL): command motion in the gripper's own frame instead of joint by joint.
• One firmware repository for both ROSbot 3 and ROSbot XL.
• A simpler project structure that makes it easier to plug in your own changes.

We're thrilled to announce the release of the latest Husarion UGV ROS 2 driver – Jazzy 2.3.2 – our biggest update in a while, with plenty of new features to share. This update brings a host of new features, improvements, and bug fixes that enhance the performance and capabilities of our Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). Whether you're using the Panther or Lynx platform, this new driver version is designed to provide a more seamless and efficient experience for all users.

Continue reading to explore the key features of the Husarion UGV ROS 2 driver, including:

• The Twist Mux Controller: A custom, chainable ros2_control controller built for deterministic, low-latency command velocity handling.
• Simulation Improvements: Plug-and-play gamepad support and high-precision ground truth tracking in Gazebo.
• New LED Animations: Introducing GOAL_FAILED and FLOOD_LIGHT animations for enhanced diagnostics and visibility.
• Updated URDF Components: New and improved components in the husarion_components_ros package, including a new rack component, custom component support, and enhanced visual representations of existing components.

The Husarion UGV Configurator is a simple yet powerful tool that will simplify the way you configure, manage, and interact with your robot platform. It's designed as a Textual User Interface (TUI) application that brings a lot of useful tools in a user-friendly interface.

Continue reading to learn more about its key features, including:

1. ROS configuration management
   • Modify controller parameters such as velocity limits
   • Add URDF components
   • Manage and create custom animations
   • Restore default configuration
2. Driver control
   • Restart the driver
   • View real-time logs
   • Update driver version
3. Accessing robot information
   • Quick access to robot information such as: robot model, serial number, driver version, etc.

We’re excited to announce a major update to the Husarion UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) ROS 2 driver, rebranded and upgraded from Panther ROS 2 driver to accommodate multiple Husarion robotic platforms. This enhancement is not just a name change, it's an evolution into a more versatile and universally applicable driver across all Husarion UGV platforms. Whether you're already using the Panther or exploring the new Husarion Lynx, this enhanced driver brings powerful improvements designed to support the full range of our UGVs.

Continue reading to explore the key features of the Husarion UGV ROS 2 driver, including:

• Support for multiple platforms, including Husarion Lynx mobile platform.
• New, more versatile, visually appealing, and informative LED animations.
• Simplified configuration management of the ROS driver.
• WebUI, now available by default, with new features like AUX power and motor torque management.
• Switch to gamepad controller XInput mode.

Husarion Panther is a heavy-duty, autonomous mobile robotic platform designed to perform in the most challenging applications. We want to allow our clients to concentrate on developing their innovative solutions based on Panther without wasting unnecessary time figuring out how to handle our robot or integrate it with external components. That’s why our developers work hard to ensure that your experience with Panther is smooth, safe, and intuitive, allowing you to start working with our robot right away.

With the latest release of Panther ROS Driver v1.1.0, we have introduced a bunch of new features to enhance user experience and safety, including:

• A new panther_manager based on BehaviorTree.CPP, which allows you to easily control the robot’s behavior in real-time and debug it on a visual interface.
• A velocity smoother for better control of the robot’s movement and an extended Kalman filter configuration for improved odometry information.
• Enhanced reporting on battery state and efficient handling of hardware-related errors based on the compatibility with the robot’s predefined configuration.

Husarion Panther is a heavy-duty robot designed for a variety of outdoor use cases across agriculture, logistics, mining, and other industries, so we do everything to ensure that its performance is stable and resilient even in the most demanding conditions. This requires not only robust construction, well-designed electronics, and sufficient IP protection rate, but also reliable and efficient software.

That’s why we are pleased to announce the release of Panther v1.0.0 ROS driver - an updated version of Panther software stack, optimized for safety, performance and enhanced user experience, both when working with the physical robot and with its simulation.

In this article, we will dig into the new features of Panther introduced in this release, including:

• new LED animation system that enables you to signal complex Panther behavior easily and efficiently
• a revised version of the URDF model of Panther
• changes for optimized safety and performance.

Let’s get started!