Autonomous Robot with Keyboard Control

Abstract

We were thrilled when Robotic sent us a review unit of its TurtleBot3 because we are the team behind the robotics blog Automation on IEEE Spectrum. People who want to get their feet wet with the Robot Operating System, or Ros, can use this little robot as a platform. Despite its popularity among academic researchers and developers in industry, Ros's complexity can be daunting. The network-based TurtleBot2, which predates the Turtlebot3, is still an excellent ROS platform. However, the TurtleBot 3 makes use of a brand-new class of inexpensive computing and sensing hardware: The platform incorporates a complete ROS installation into the smallest, cheapest, and most user-friendly mobile robot that is capable of supporting it. Because the TurtleBot3 comes in two flavors—burger and waffle—Robotics actually sent us two units. The waffle is based on Intel's joule compute module, which appears to be in jeopardy right now, but it provides more advanced features. Therefore, the Raspberry Pi 3-based US $549 Burger will be our primary focus here. ROS, as previously mentioned, has a steep learning curve. If you're willing to learn ROS and other advanced robotics and computer science concepts over time, this is not the robot for you.