European Robotics Forum 2011 Workshop on the Orocos Toolchain

At the European Robotics Forum 2011 Intermodalics, Locomotec and K.U.Leuven are organizing a two-part seminar, appealing to both industry and research institutes, titled:

  1. Real-Time Robotics with state-of-the-art open source software: case studies (45min presentation, open to all)
  2. Exploring the Orocos Toolchain (2 hours hands-on, registration required)

The session will be on April 7, 9h00-10h30 + 11h00-12h30

Remaining seats : 0 out of 20 (last update: 06/04/2011)

Real-Time Robotics with state-of-the-art open source software: case studies

In this presentation, Peter Soetens and Ruben Smits introduce the audience to todays Open Source robotics eco-system. Which are the strong and weak points of existing software ? Which work seamlessly together, and on which operating systems (Windows, Linux, VxWorks,... ) ? We will prove our statements with practical examples from both academic and industrial use cases. This presentation is the result of the long standing experience of the presenters with a open source technologies in robotics applications and will offer the audience leads and insights to further explore this realm.

Exploring the Orocos Toolchain

In this hands-on session, the participants are invited to bring their own laptop with Orocos and ROS (optionally) installed. We will support Linux, Mac OS-X and Windows users and will provide instructions on how they can prepare to participate.YouBot: A real and simulated YouBot will be usedYouBot: A real and simulated YouBot will be used

We will let the participants experience that the Orocos toolchain:

  • nicely integrates with other popular robotics software
  • provides the hooks and extensions to allow application supervision
  • gives you the possibility to write expressive, compact, yet real-time applications
  • makes 'separation of concerns' in software a natural habit for the programmer
  • allows to easily script an application together and inspect/modify with it easily while running

If you'll be using the bootable USB-sticks, prepared by the organisers, you can skip all installation instructions and directly start the assignment at https://github.com/bellenss/euRobotics_orocos_ws/wiki

If you are attending the hands-on session you can bring your own computer. Depending on you operating system you should install the necessary software using the following installation instructions:

YouBot Demo SetupYouBot Demo Setup The workshop will start with making you familiar with the Orocos Toolchain, which does not require the YouBot. The hands-on will continue then on a robot in simulation and on the real hardware. We will use the ROS communication protocol to send instructions to the simulator (Gazebo) or the YouBot. Installing Gazebo is not required, since this simulation will run on a dedicated machine. Documentation on the workshop application and the assignment can be found at https://github.com/bellenss/euRobotics_orocos_ws/wiki.

Registration

You first need to register for attending the euRobotics Forum. Registration for the workshop is mandatory, but free of charge. For the hands-on session, we will limit the number of participants to 20. The workshop is guided by 6 experienced Orocos users. Please register your participation by sending an email to info at intermodalics dot eu. We will confirm your participation with a short notice. Later-on, you will receive a second email with more details about how to prepare. You should receive this second, detailed email in the week of March, 20, 2011.