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Module 2: ROS 2 Fundamentals

This module covers the Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2), the standard middleware for robotics development.

Topics Covered​

  • ROS 2 architecture and concepts
  • Nodes, topics, services, and actions
  • URDF for humanoid robot description
  • Python-to-ROS integration

Chapters​

ROS 2 is the communication backbone for every later module: simulation in Gazebo and Isaac Sim, perception pipelines and vision-language-action models all exchange data as ROS 2 messages. Over three weeks you move from single nodes to a complete humanoid description that can be visualized and driven from launch files. All examples use Python (rclpy) on ROS 2 Humble or Jazzy.

  1. ROS 2 Architecture (Week 3): DDS and the rmw layer, QoS, nodes, executors, topics, the ros2 CLI and custom messages
  2. Services, Actions and Parameters (Week 4): request/response services, long-running actions with feedback and cancellation, and YAML-configured parameters
  3. URDF, TF2 and Launch Files (Week 5): describing a humanoid with URDF and xacro, coordinate frames with TF2, robot_state_publisher and Python launch files

Prerequisites​

Complete Module 1: Introduction to Physical AI