Basic Tutorial

This tutorial aims to explain the use of rosdashboard using a simple example. It is based on the Turtlesim tutorial (see the Beginner Tutorials, especially UnderstandingTopics)

Before you start

You should be familiar with how ROS works and how the Turtlesim program works. This can be picked up from the beginner tutorials. Once you know how to run Turtlesim and Turtle Teleop, you should be able to follow this tutorial.

Setting up

1. Get turtlesim.
2. Get rosdashboard.

What's next

1. Start rosdashboard, turtlesim and turtle_teleop.
2. Select the "Thermo" widget in the toolbar and drag it to the dashboard.
3. When the configuration dialog opens, enter the topic and datafield information. For the default turtlesim node (without remapping) this should be "/turtle1/command_velocity" with datafield "linear"
4. If the widget could find the topic and connect to it, the widget should get a light green background.
5. When you move the turtle through the teleop console you should be able to see the current velocity in the "Thermo" widget on the dashboard. (This will only show the last velocity since it monitors the commands and not the current velocity. If you want to see the current velocity do a right click on the widget, select subscription and change the subscription to "/turtle1/pose" with datafield "linear_velocity".)

Second Tutorial

(DRAFT)

Setting up

1. Get the turtlesim source code.
2. Get rosdashboard.
3. Make sure you can build and run the source version of turtlesim.

What's next

1. Modify the code to publish debugging specific data. (show how to use new topics)
2. Calculate distance to wall.
3. Calculate orientation (in degrees).