Any newbies also following Hands-On ROS for Robotics Programming?

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Newbie here! Not sure what the protocol is for newbies to this forum so apologies in advance if I make mistakes.

I have been interested in learning ROS for a while now and have been on the hunt for [1] good resources to learn with and [2] an inexpensive ROS compatible robot to learn on. Recently, I discovered Bernardo’s (@brjapon) great book “Hands-On ROS for Robotics Programming” and thereby found both a great resource and a great educational robot!

This means I am pretty late to the handsonros party for this forum based on the excellent posts I have seen here in this area (lookin’ at you @KeithW, @cyclicalobsessive, @jimrh, @pitosalas, @cleoqc and probably others I haven’t found yet).

So, I will be slowly following the book, starting with Dexter OS (depreciated, I know but hey, I did say I was following the book…) with a detour to the GoPiGo OS (not in the book of course but it is the current official Modular Robotics OS for GoPiGo) and then on to ROS (1 for now, 2 for later) and see where it leads.

I hope there are some other newbies on this path that I can compare notes (and maybe commiserate) with, and, for the old hands, I hope I can learn from you when I get stuck! :robot:

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Good luck! I enjoyed following the book. You can look at my old posts to follow the pitfalls I found.
Right now I’m not doing much ROS - happy to answer questions best I can remember, but at this point I’m rusty.
/K

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Welcome in!

Rule #1:
You WILL make mistakes.

Rule #2:
The rest of us make mistakes too and these robots seem specifically designed at times just to be an abject lesson in humility.

Rule #3:
Don’t worry!  We’ve all got yer back and don’t hesitate to try things.

Rule #4:
The only real requirement, (IMHO), is “document and share”.  Your little adventure “just for the heck of it” may be the key that allows some student or scientist somewhere to complete a critically important project!

Rule #5:
The bottom line is that we’re all here to have fun and enjoy our 'bots, so don’t take yourself too seriously and don’t forget to laugh at yourself.

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Thanks @jimrh for that great “welcome” and advice. I really appreciate it!

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