L10: ROS 2 (Introduction)

Overview

This lecture introduces the Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2). You will learn how ROS 2 structures robot software into nodes that communicate via topics, services, and other middleware abstractions, and how to build and run simple ROS 2 packages in your own workspace.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you will be able to:

• Explain the motivation for ROS 2 and its role in modern robotics.

• Describe the core ROS 2 concepts: nodes, topics, messages, services, and the ROS 2 daemon.

• Set up and build a ROS 2 workspace using colcon.

• Create a minimal C++ node using rclcpp.

• Implement simple publisher and subscriber nodes and run them from the command line.

• Use basic ROS 2 CLI tools to introspect nodes, topics, and messages.

Contents

• Lecture Content
  • ROS 2 Fundamentals and Architecture
  • Workspace and Development Environment
  • Writing Your First ROS 2 Node
  • Node Spinning and Execution Model
  • ROS 2 Messages
  • Publishers
  • Subscribers
• Lecture Exercises

Next Steps

• In the next lecture, we will deepen the ROS 2 programming model:

  • Launch files and multi-node systems.

  • Parameters and configuration.

  • Timers, rate control, and basic debugging tools.

• Start thinking about how to migrate small OOP examples from earlier lectures into ROS 2 nodes to prepare for future assignments.