ROS

We will be using ROS (Robot Operating System) throughout this semester. The specific version we will use is ROS Kinetic. ROS Kinetic is designed to be installed under Ubuntu 15.10 and 16.04. Installing ROS Kinetic under any other operating system is experimental and is not advised (see note in bold below). You are recommended to use ROS in the lab (EN-1049).  Select “Linux” and watch for the menu on restart.  Select “Ubuntu 16×9”.

In addition to using ROS in the lab, there are other options described below.  However, neither the instructor nor the department can provide support for these other options.  Pursuing these options may cost you hours or days of configuration effort and you will receive no academic credit for this work.

One option is to run Ubuntu on a virtual machine within your normal operating system using a tool such as VirtualBox.  This may work okay, but tends to be problematic for graphical applications (such as rviz, which is ROS’s main visualization tool).

If you have a computer already running one of the supported versions of Ubuntu, or if you have a computer whose hard drive can be erased or dual-booted to run Ubuntu then you are free to use it for this course. You should certainly back up all of your data before attempting any installation.

ROS Resources