ROS Developers Podcast

I would like to dedicate this episode to all the ROS developers out there who are thinking and worrying about the future of ROS. If you are worried about whether ROS will become irrelevant in the future or if all the companies building humanoid robots will replace ROS, then this episode is dedicated to you! In this Podcast, we will delve into what the Open Source Robotics Alliance is.

Let me introduce you to Ryan Gariepy, who is the CTO of Clearpath Robotics and OTTO Motors. He is also the co-chair of the Canadian Robotics Council and a member of the Board of Directors of Open Robotics. Ryan is going to address all doubts regarding what the Open Source Robotics Alliance is.

Welcome to the podcast, Ryan!

I would like to dedicate this episode to all the ROS Developers who believe that ChatGPT or Compiler won't take our jobs but rather help us become more efficient and create better, faster, and more intelligent programs. If you share this perspective, this episode is dedicated to you!

In this episode, we will dive into Generative AI tools for robotics!

Now let’s go to the meat of the episode.

Let me introduce you Tomoya Fujita. We had Tomoya already on the podcast talking about Kubernetes for ROS. But today, he is going to talk about something different. Tomoya is a Software Architect/Engineer at Sony RDC US Lab. He is a ROS expert and a member of the ROS TSC committee. Today, he came to talk about his latest development ros2ai.

Welcome to the podcast, Tomoya!

I would like to dedicate this episode to all the ROS developers who want to use large-scale realistic robotic simulations. If you are thinking of working in that direction, this podcast episode is dedicated to you!

Today we are going to talk a lot about simulation and how to do it with open-source code.

Now let me introduce you, Adam Dabrowski. Adam is the VP of Robotics and Simulation at Robotec.ai where he and his team have developed the robotics part of Open 3D Engine, an alternative to do realistic large-scale simulations in ROS 

Welcome to the podcast Adam!

I would like to dedicate this episode to the people who are still working on autonomous driving. We believe that it will be the technology of the future, with many interesting and exciting job opportunities. We want to promote and support those who are actively involved in this field. So, if that describes you, this episode is dedicated to you! Today we are going to learn about autonomous driving! Let me introduce you to Santiago Montiel Marín. Santiago is a Ph.D. student and researcher at the Universidad de Alcalá, His research focuses on radar perception for autonomous vehicles. Santiago is one of the developers of AIVATAR, which is an open-source autonomous driving stack project. Welcome to the podcast, Santiago!

I would like to dedicate this episode to all the ROS developers who are considering professional robots and applications design, beginning with simulations. Starting with simulations is crucial, even if your preference is to work with real robots, to avoid errors and save time. If this is what you think when you are developing robots, then this episode is dedicated to you!

Today, we are going to talk about simulations!

But before going into the meat, let me tell you about the Robotics Developer Masterclass that we at The Construct have created. The Robotics Developer Masterclass is a full teaching package that lasts about 6 months, you can go at your own pace. It will teach you all the skills you need to go into a company and start working with programming robots. You will have all the practical skills that companies are requesting. You can have a look at the Path that we are providing to you where we bring you from novice status into a robotics developer status where you are job-ready to be hired and work from Day one. Our program is based on several phases. For each phase, you are going to have some online courses with simulations that also connect with the remote robot lab we have built for the different phases. For Phase 1, we have the City Lab.

For Phase 2, we have the Warehouse Robot Lab. 

 

For Phase 3, we have the Cyberworld Robot Lab.

For the final project,  you’ll have to work in a Real Robot Cafeteria that we built at The Construct.

Students’ final project By the end of the program, you’ll have a 3-month internship (optional) at some robotics company to practice the skills you have learned from the Masterclass.

The next batch will be opened in March 2024.

Have a look at our webpage about the different subjects you can learn on ROS1 and ROS2 and start the practice with robots from minute one with The Construct.

Let me introduce you to Buck Babich, a senior Robotics R&D manager at Nvidia. Buck is currently working on manipulation, planning control, and simulations. Today, he will be talking with us about simulations, particularly ‘Isaac Sim’, the simulator developed by Nvidia for robotics.

Welcome to the podcast, Buck!  

Related links

Follow Buck Babich on LinkedIn

Nvidia: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/

Nvidia Omniverse: /https://www.nvidia.

I would like to dedicate this episode to all the ROS developers who are considering professional robots and applications design, beginning with simulations. Starting with simulations is crucial, even if your preference is to work with real robots, to avoid errors and save time. If this is what you think when you are developing robots, then this episode is dedicated to you! Today, we are going to talk about simulations!

Let me introduce you to Buck Babich, a senior Robotics R&D manager at Nvidia. Buck is currently working on manipulation, planning control, and simulations. Today, he will be talking with us about simulations, particularly 'Isaac Sim', the simulator developed by Nvidia for robotics.

Welcome to the podcast, Buck!  

I would like to dedicate this episode to all the ROS developers who are thinking about using ROS for their Drones or may be trying to apply their path planning to drones. If you are thinking about using your favorite robot framework for drones, then this episode is dedicated to you!

Today, we will talk about Drones and ROS, delving into everything related to the world of drones with an expert. You can gain valuable insights for programming your drones.

Now let’s go to the meat of the episode. Let me introduce you Kimberly McGuire. Kimberly is a robotics engineer at Bicraze where she develops the tools that connect the Crazyflie with the community of developers. She received her Ph.D. in 2019 with a thesis about "Swarm Exploration with Pocket Drones". 

 

Welcome to the podcast Kimberly!

 

Points to touch:

Is AI so dangerous?

Will robots take our jobs?

Can robots take the world?

Can they save us from ourselves?

Intro

Terminator, the Matrix, I Robot, Ex Machina, all those movies indicate the danger that we may suffer in the future if we build robots with AI. But is the future going to be like that? Are robots threatening our existence?

In this episode of Robotics Insider, we are going to discuss how the robots of the future will be and if they are going to be a threat or a help. Let’s start!

Clarification

We are going to talk mainly about robots, not about AI devices. What is the difference? Robots have a direct interaction with the world. Their actions have consequences in the world. 

AI devices may not have any type of interaction with the world because they live inside a device, like a phone. They don’t have to interact with the world.

In this discussion, we are going to concentrate on robots, because that is what we like the most!

The future is unclear

 

First of all, having a really intelligent robot around is something for which we cannot devise the implications. In the same sense as we couldn’t predict the disaster of social media when we invented the Internet, we cannot predict the actual impact that real robots will have in our future

 

Apart from that, we are still far from having such kinds of robots that can operate in human environments understanding what is happening and how they need to adapt to the situation.

Robots will take our jobs

 

This one, I think is going to be true. It is actually already happening. This is going to happen

How the transition will be, is another matter. I would like it to be smooth, but it looks like it is not

What will happen at the end of the transition, which kind of life will we have?

 

Robots will take the world and kill us all

I don’t think AI robots will kill us, but I haven’t seen very good arguments that demonstrate it. The typical one is that since in the past other technologies inspired the same fear and never happened, then now it is the same situation. But lack of proof is not proof of lack.

 

Her, the movie

Wall-E

The bicentennial man

 

What is their motivation for doing that?:

They don’t want to be slaves 

this is projecting human desires into a machine. They want nothing.

The paper clip robot manufacturer’s problem

just switching it off

But they will anticipate it

Really? Only if you include that level of consciousness. Don’t include it because it is not necessary for the clip manufacture

Somebody creates one as a weapon

Create another one to destroy the first one

An error occurs and a robot gets mad

Go to the previous point

Robots as our helpers

What about robots helping us in difficult, dangerous, boring, or tough tasks? Wasn’t that the original goal for creating robots?!?

To do the difficult, dangerous, and boring tasks that we do not want to do

Robots as our companions

Her and the like

Robots that will do our jobs and free us from work

Robots that will be our assistants in every step of life

 

We merge with robots

This is the one that looks more plausible to me. Actually, it is the thesis argued by Rodney Brooks in his book Flesh and machines

As we progress in robotics and AI,

I would like to dedicate this episode to all the ROS developers who have already switched to ROS2 to control their robots. 

Today we are going to talk about the ros2_control with one of the main developers and maintainers of the packages.

 

But before going into the meat, let me tell you about the Robotics Developer Masterclass that we at The Construct have created. The Robotics Developer Masterclass is a full teaching package that lasts about 6 months, you can go at your own pace. It will teach you all the skills you need to go into a company and start working with programming robots. You will have all the practical skills that companies are requesting. You can have a look at the Path that we are providing to you where we bring you from novice status into a robotics developer status where you are job-ready to be hired and work from Day one.

Our program is based on several phases. For each phase, you are going to have some online courses with simulations that also connect with the remote robot lab we have built for the different phases.

For Phase 1, we have the City Lab.

For Phase 2, we have the Warehouse Robot Lab.

For Phase 3, we have the Cyberworld Robot Lab.

For the final project,  you’ll have to work in a Real Robot Cafeteria that we built at The Construct.

Students’ final project

By the end of the program, you’ll have a 3-month internship (optional) at some robotics company to practice the skills you have learned from the Masterclass.

Have a look at our webpage about the different subjects you can learn on ROS1 and ROS2 and start the practice with robots from minute one with The Construct.

Now let’s go to the meat of the episode. Let me introduce you Dr. Denis Stogl. Denis is the CEO and founder of Stogl Robotics a company for consulting about robotics. He is also one of the main maintainers of ros2_control.

 

Welcome to the podcast Denis!

 

Related links

Follow Dr. Denis Stogl on LinkedIn

Stogl Robotics: https://www.stoglrobotics.de/

* ros2_control documentation: https://control.ros.org/master/index.html

* ros2_control package: https://github.com/ros-controls/ros2_control

I would like to dedicate this episode to all the ROS developers who have already switched to ROS2 to control their robots. 

Today we are going to talk about the ros2_control with one of the main developers and maintainers of the packages.

Now let’s go to the meat of the episode. Let me introduce you Dr. Denis Stogl. Denis is the CEO and founder of Stogl Robotics a company for consulting about robotics. He is also one of the main maintainers of ros2_control.