ROS on the PR2 [ROS Topics]

In the last issue of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, we talked about a number of different robots running the robot operating system (ROS). In this issue, we are going to focus on one in particular, the PR2. Willow Garage announced in May the 11 institutions that will get to use a PR2 for free for two years through its PR2 Beta Program (Figure 1). The PR2s all run ROS, and the institutions have all committed to making significant open-source contributions back to the ROS community. ROS has been gaining traction at an astonishing rate since its release in January, but having 11 PR2s at top institutions will accelerate that progress even further. We will give a brief overview of what the PR2 Beta Program recipients are planning to do, and then dive into a concrete example of the use of ROS on the PR2.