In the RoboShop project, we aim at developing a platform for robotic applications in a shopping mall. We took the decision to use ROS, the robotic middleware backed by the Open Source Robotic Foundation. We also wanted to continue using our favorite language Pharo. This is how we end up developing PhaROS, a client for Pharo-based ROS nodes.
Today, we are glad to announce that the first version of PhaROS is now officially available, that is there is :
- Code freely available under an MIT licence,
- Tests shipped with the code, and
- Documentation : the first deliverable of the RoboShop project is dedicated to PhaROS
There is still much to do in PhaROS, and more broadly in the RoboShop project. But, so far we already have a PhaROS node that wraps the robot that we are using. We connected it to the gmapping SLAM algorithm and we have used it to buid a map of our lab. More to come soon.