Bridging ROS for Heterogeneous Integration in Mobile Robot Systems

Sammanfattning: We investigate the difficulty of integrating disparate, heterogeneous systems which have not been designed to work together. Such difficulties may arise from differences in communication protocols or data formats, making an in- tegration effort largely manual and labor intensive. The investigation is done in the context of integrating two different robot systems, one mobile platform running ROS (Robot Operating System) and one stationary two-armed ABB robot. The thesis consists of two parts. First, existing solutions to this problem (or parts of it) are examined and evaluated for their applicability. After no suitable solution is found, a tool is then created which solves the problem of integrating non-ROS compatible devices with a ROS system. The presented tool is a program that generates modular bridging nodes between ROS and other systems. Finally, the tool proves its value in the integration of two different robots, where one system also receives some additional changes for practical reasons.