Have you ever wondered how robots manage to move by intelligently themselves, making their own decisions? In this blog, we are going to delve into the heart of this robotic capability by exploring the world of ROS, the Robot Operative System.
In the Industry 4.0 world, the robot’s movement is more than an action, is the efficient interaction between motors, sensors and algorithms that, together, provide robots with enough intelligence to make decisions. ROS (Robot Operative System) is a set of libraries, tools and conventions that ease the development of Software for Robots. Despite its name, ROS is not an operative system in the traditional sense, but rather a flexible framework designed to make it easier to write software for robots.
In robotics, choosing the right system for the movement of the robots is crucial. And what makes ROS the preferred choice of many? Here are some reasons that make ROS a robotic hero:
ROS is used in a wide variety of robotic applications, from industrial robots to autonomous vehicles (AGVs). It makes easier software development by providing a robust infrastructure and a set of tools that accelerate the design process, implementation and debugging of complex robotic systems. 
Among all the robot’s movements, autonomous navigation is a field in constant growth. It is becoming more common to find AGVs touring factories, warehouses or even the streets of our cities. But how can a robot move autonomously, avoiding obstacles and reaching its destination? This is where environment mapping, environment perception, trajectory planning and motion control come into play.
To know in which space our robot moves, we need a global map of the environment. Using the ROS package, it is allowed that mapping is done by the robot itself, which, in its initial position, collects information about the local environment and, as it moves, combines the local environments to build a global map. 
A robot´s ability to understand its current environment is essential for navigation and movement. ROS allows easy integration of various sensors, such as cameras and lidar. Also, its SLAM package (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) allows the robot to create a map of its current environment while it moves and compare it with the global one, thus knowing where it is located and maintaining precise tracking of its location. 
Trajectory in navigation is the decision of how the robot should move from its current position to a desired destination. With the perception and location of the robot on the map, ROS is capable of designing trajectories to go from a starting point to a destination point. Also, if some new obstacle appears on the route, it will be perceived by the sensors and ROS will update the trajectory to avoid it. 
Motion control involves covert the planned routes into physical actions. The ROS “Navigation Stack” is an algorithm collection that manages this process. Coordinating the information of the planning and the perception, the robot can move autonomously.
ROS not only facilitates the interaction between the robot´s hardware and software but also provides the necessary tools to plan its routes, avoid obstacles and move intelligently.
Being mainly located on production lines, safety, efficiency and adaptability are key in the industrial robot´s movements. ROS offers us a wide range of possibilities which allow us to ensure that our robot´s movements meet these characteristics:
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