Lego Mindstorms NXT is a low-cost programmable robotics kit that is used in education and by hobbyits throughout the world. One of the most visible NXT events is First Lego League. The developers of foote-ros-pkg have developed a bridge that connects NXT with ROS, allowing NXT users to leverage all the ROS tools and capabilities.
The NXT-ROS software stack provides many useful tools to interface NXT robots with ROS. Currently NXT users can take robot models created with Lego Digital Designer, and automatically convert them into robot models compatible with ROS. The converted robot model can be visualized in rviz, and in the future we hope to add simulation capabilities in Gazebo, our 3D simulator. The bridge between NXT and ROS creates a ROS topic for each motor and sensor of the NXT robot.
Once a robot is connected to ROS, you can start running applications such as the base controller, wheel odometry, keyboard/joystick teleoperation, and even assisted teleoperation using the ROS navigation stack. The NXT-ROS software stack includes a number of example robot models for users to play with and to get a feel for using NXT with ROS.
This new NXT-ROS software stack provides NXT users access to the open-source ROS community. NXT users now have access to state of the art open source robotics libraries available on ros.org.
Please see the nxt page on the ROS wiki for documentation, demos, and more. The developers would like to thank the nxt-python project for support and development.
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