Implementing and Using ROS in Undergraduate Robotics Curricula

Siobhan Rigby Oca; Blake Hament

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 1
Tagged Division: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47579

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Paper Authors

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Siobhan Rigby Oca Duke University orcid.org/0000-0002-1370-0036

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Siobhan Rigby Oca is an Assistant Professor of the Practice and Assistant Director of Robotics Programs in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University, NC, USA. She received her B.Sc. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Masters in Translational Medicine from the Universities of California Berkeley and San Francisco. She completed her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Duke University. Her research interests include applied medical robotics, human robot interaction, and robotics education.

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Blake Hament Elon University

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Blake Hament is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Elon University. The work presented in this manuscript was completed during his Ph.D. program at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Blake was awarded a US Congressional Commendation and a US Department of Transportation Outstanding Student of the Year award for his contributions. He received a B.S. in Physics from Duke University and served as a research assistant at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). After his undergraduate studies, Blake joined Teach for America, served as a robotics coach, and earned his M.Ed. in Science Education from University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He earned his Ph.D. with the Mechanical Engineering Department at University of Nevada, Las Vegas while conducting R&D with companies like Tesla, Lockheed Martin, Boston Dynamics, and local aerospace and robotics startups.

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Abstract

This review aims to elucidate the multiple options, challenges, and opportunities to incorporate ROS into undergraduate robotics courses. First, the importance of ROS in the robotics research and industry community is discussed as motivation to learn how to use this middleware (and frequently used packages) in the classroom. Additionally, examples of use in the classroom and challenges of implementation are described based on both literature and interviews with instructors across the country. Then, specific implementation approaches for getting students started using ROS are introduced/described along with specific examples and pros/cons of each approach. Finally, ROS1 versus ROS2 will be discussed to describe the utility of each option for instructors as they develop their courses. Overall, this review is meant to collate motivation and options for instructors in robotics trying to incorporate ROS into their courses with minimal overhead for themselves and students.

Introduction

Importance of ROS ROS has become a powerful staple of robotics research and development. ROS is a software suite with efficient, modular, and easily customizable software tools. It is free to use, well-documented, and widely supported. Robotics researchers and developers can quickly spin up projects using ROS packages, devoting their time to novel robotic applications rather than reinventing the “wheel” of tried-and-true low-level software programs for communication, visualization, and resource management. ROS was created to be the “Linux of Robotics,” and to this day it is supported by an international community of open-source contributors.

ROS has long straddled the academic and industrial research communities. It began as an ambitious project by Keenan Wyrobek and Eric Berger at the beginning of their PhD’s at Stanford. Development skyrocketed when the project moved to Scott Hassan’s Willow Garage technology incubator in concert with the development of the PR1 robot line. Today, ROS can be found in virtually every academic robotics research lab, and industry leaders like Boston Dynamics and iRobot use ROS to prototype and test their products. Thus, students who learn ROS gain an important and ubiquitous skill that sets them up for success in academia and industry.

Function of ROS in undergraduate courses

ROS has been used in undergraduate robotics courses as a tool to learn about, simulate, and actuate robotic mechanisms. On top of ROS, there are many packages that can be used to and visualize physical environments, like Gazebo and develop, simulate and execute motion plans, like MoveIt, for examples. Examples of implementation include course projects and the main subject of some entire courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Challenges of using ROS in Undergraduate Curricula

Though it has a significant learning curve, ROS is considered foundational for many applied roboticists and is often found in robotics job listings. Key limitations in using ROS include the learning curve and the computational resources needed to run the middleware with most common packages. ROS was designed to run on Linux based systems. Although some other options are described in detail in the paper, streamlining these processes for instructors and students and making sure students have access to sufficient computational power to run simulations are huge barriers for teaching and implementing ROS.

Review of ROS implementation approaches

This paper will review the following approaches along with general description, case examples (along with git repositories for set up), and discussion of pros/cons:

Linux via Dual Boot / Local Installation Linux via virtual machines (VM) / Container ROS for Windows ROS for Mac Robostack

Finally, this paper will review the experiences and available resources of multiple institutions implementing ROS1 v ROS 2 in their classes. Although ROS1 is more common in courses today, ROS 2 was developed and will be the supported version in the future. Still certain hardware of ROS1 have been discontinued or not yet transferred to ROS 2. This review will help educators decide when to make this transfer for their courses, with clear benefits and drawbacks for each option. Overall, this review will help educators in deciding if/how to incorporate ROS into their robotics courses to help train the next generation of roboticists.

Citation
Format

Oca, S. R., & Hament, B. (2024, June), Implementing and Using ROS in Undergraduate Robotics Curricula Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47579

TY - CPAPER
AB - This review aims to elucidate the multiple options, challenges, and opportunities to incorporate ROS into undergraduate robotics courses. First, the importance of ROS in the robotics research and industry community is discussed as motivation to learn how to use this middleware (and frequently used packages) in the classroom. Additionally, examples of use in the classroom and challenges of implementation are described based on both literature and interviews with instructors across the country. Then, specific implementation approaches for getting students started using ROS are introduced/described along with specific examples and pros/cons of each approach. Finally, ROS1 versus ROS2 will be discussed to describe the utility of each option for instructors as they develop their courses. Overall, this review is meant to collate motivation and options for instructors in robotics trying to incorporate ROS into their courses with minimal overhead for themselves and students.

Introduction

Importance of ROS
ROS has become a powerful staple of robotics research and development. ROS is a software suite with efficient, modular, and easily customizable software tools. It is free to use, well-documented, and widely supported. Robotics researchers and developers can quickly spin up projects using ROS packages, devoting their time to novel robotic applications rather than reinventing the “wheel” of tried-and-true low-level software programs for communication, visualization, and resource management. ROS was created to be the “Linux of Robotics,” and to this day it is supported by an international community of open-source contributors.

ROS has long straddled the academic and industrial research communities. It began as an ambitious project by Keenan Wyrobek and Eric Berger at the beginning of their PhD’s at Stanford. Development skyrocketed when the project moved to Scott Hassan’s Willow Garage technology incubator in concert with the development of the PR1 robot line. Today, ROS can be found in virtually every academic robotics research lab, and industry leaders like Boston Dynamics and iRobot use ROS to prototype and test their products. Thus, students who learn ROS gain an important and ubiquitous skill that sets them up for success in academia and industry.

Function of ROS in undergraduate courses

ROS has been used in undergraduate robotics courses as a tool to learn about, simulate, and actuate robotic mechanisms. On top of ROS, there are many packages that can be used to and visualize physical environments, like Gazebo and develop, simulate and execute motion plans, like MoveIt, for examples. Examples of implementation include course projects and the main subject of some entire courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Challenges of using ROS in Undergraduate Curricula

Though it has a significant learning curve, ROS is considered foundational for many applied roboticists and is often found in robotics job listings. Key limitations in using ROS include the learning curve and the computational resources needed to run the middleware with most common packages. ROS was designed to run on Linux based systems. Although some other options are described in detail in the paper, streamlining these processes for instructors and students and making sure students have access to sufficient computational power to run simulations are huge barriers for teaching and implementing ROS.

Review of ROS implementation approaches

This paper will review the following approaches along with general description, case examples (along with git repositories for set up), and discussion of pros/cons:

Linux via Dual Boot / Local Installation
Linux via virtual machines (VM) / Container
ROS for Windows
ROS for Mac
Robostack

Finally, this paper will review the experiences and available resources of multiple institutions implementing ROS1 v ROS 2 in their classes. Although ROS1 is more common in courses today, ROS 2 was developed and will be the supported version in the future. Still certain hardware of ROS1 have been discontinued or not yet transferred to ROS 2. This review will help educators decide when to make this transfer for their courses, with clear benefits and drawbacks for each option. Overall, this review will help educators in deciding if/how to incorporate ROS into their robotics courses to help train the next generation of roboticists.
AU - Siobhan Rigby Oca
AU - Blake Hament
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Implementing and Using ROS in Undergraduate Robotics Curricula
UR - https://peer.asee.org/47579
ER -