A Concise Introduction to Robot Programming with ROS2

This is an excellent way to learn ros2, since everything is done in simulation, using Gazebo, the tiago_gazebo robot simulator, and Rviz to visualize the robot and its behavior. At the same time, the actual code used to drive the robot is provided in an appendix, so that you can see how the algorithms were implemented. You’ll need a Linux installation to run the examples. The book uses ros2 foxy and Ubuntu 20.04, but I used ros2 Humble and Ubuntu 22.04, by replacing all references to “foxy” with “humble.” But before building with colcon, note the following.There is a missing package, play_motion2, in the ThirdParty directory which will cause the exercises in Chapter 3 and later chapters to fail. Get a copy of the package either from the github repository pal_robotics, play_motion2, and copy the package to the src/ThirdParty directory, or install the tiago_simulation from ros.org, (takes some work, but provides the full tiago simulation with an arm and responds to teleop_twist_keyboard commands) and copy the package from the tiago simulation src directory to the book’s src/ThirdParty directory. Then follow the rest of the build instructions in the text.After a short introduction to ROS2 concepts, the book proceeds from simple motion control of the simulated robot, to obstacle avoidance, target following, and finally navigation using Nav2. The last program, patrolling behavior, is the most interesting, as the simulated robot moves around a circuit of waypoints and shows a camera view of what the robot is seeing. (However, you will have to endure a series of “Force quit” popups, which you have to accept, before the robot will continue, and may need to relaunch the last launch file.) The concepts underlying the behavior are explained in detail, and the code is well-organized and well commented. Except for launch files, all the code is in C++. You don’t need to know C++ to run the examples, since they only use launch files, but to understand or modify the code you’ll need to be comfortable with one of the more recent versions of C++.My only complaint, a minor one, is that as others have pointed out, the color images in the physical book are too small, making some of them unreadable. However, in most cases you can figure out what the images are trying to show.

There aren't a lot of books on ROS2. After between disappointed with low quality ebooks on the subject, I was pleasantly surprised to find this well thought out and clear introduction to ROS2. The book assumes that you're already familiar with basic C++ development with cmake, etc., and gets straight to the essence of ROS, its concepts and strategy. I recommend this book if you want to understand ROS, and not just follow simple tutorials.

I'm only a very short way into the book but already it has passed my evaluation with flying colors. Each chapter is well laid out and the flow is logical and precise. The software examples are well explained and the logic justified, even down to possible mistakes to avoid and why certain algorithms exist. And, of course, the examples work! A Gem to add to your library.

The writing (or translation) is very poor making it very difficult to follow.