MRC/Tutorials/Simple C++ programs

So far, we have seen how to create a simple C++ project, run the simulator, show some visualizations and drive the simulated robot around using the keyboard. That's nice and all, but we don't want to manually drive around a virtual robot. We want an autonomous, real robot!

As was already stated during the lecture, we won't expose you to the (sometimes somewhat frustrating) low-level details of connecting software to hardware. Instead, we provide you with an abstraction layer that can be easily used within your program to read sensor data and send goals to the base. Under the hood this layer communicates using ROS, but unless things go horribly wrong you won't have to worry about that.

The documentation of the following topics might be useful when designing your robotic software, consume them at the moment you need them

• Loops
• Robot movement
• Sensor inputs

It might furthermore be useful to familiarise yourself with the C++ syntax. You can find many useful and up-to-date resources online.