PART 1: Introduction to ROS and Environment Setup

The Robot Operating System (ROS) is an open-source framework that provides essential tools and libraries to build complex, scalable robotic systems. ROS 2 Foxy, a long-term support (LTS) release, is designed to improve performance, flexibility, and security for both research and industrial applications. This section provides a thorough introduction to ROS 2 Foxy, guiding beginners through its core concepts and components.

Participants will learn how ROS enables seamless communication between different parts of a robotic system using nodes, topics, services, and actions. With a step-by-step environment setup process for both Linux and Windows (via WSL2), participants will establish a solid foundation for building, testing, and deploying ROS-powered robots.

Key highlights of this section include:

• Understanding ROS 2 architecture: Introducing ROS Master, nodes, topics, services, and how they interact to create a cohesive robotic system.

• Environment setup: Installing ROS 2 Foxy on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Windows 11 (WSL2), including configuring the workspace and ensuring the system is ready for development.

• Simulating with ROS: Utilizing simple simulation tools like Turtlesim and exploring TurtleBot3 in a Gazebo simulation to familiarize participants with ROS message passing and robot control.

This session lays the groundwork for deeper exploration of ROS 2, leading to more advanced topics such as hardware integration, teleoperation, and real-world robotic applications.