Visual Servoing Platform  version 3.5.0 under development (2022-02-15)
Tutorial: Using ViSP with ROS 1

In this tutorial you will learn how to install ViSP from prebuilt ROS packages on Linux Ubuntu or Debian.

Note
Concerning ViSP installation, we provide also other Tutorials for ViSP users.

ViSP ROS package

ViSP is available as a ROS package for kinetic, melodic and noetic distros. Under Ubuntu, to get the package simply type:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-<distro>-visp

Other ROS packages

We provide also other ROS packages that exploit ViSP:

  • vision_visp: a metapackage that contains
    1. visp_bridge: a bunch of wrappers between ViSP and ROS data structures
    2. visp_tracker: a ROS version of ViSP model-based tracker

    3. visp_auto_tracker: a tracker with auto-detection of a target

  • visp_ros: a ViSP extension for ROS users that makes ROS easy to use. It contains:
    1. a library with new C++ classes (vpROSGrabber, vpROSRobot, vpROSRobotPioneer, vpROSRobotFrankaCoppeliasim) that could be used like usual ViSP classes. They are based on ROS, but to use them there is no need to know so much about ROS. Thus, the library makes possible to use ROS in a transparent way, either by building classical binaries without catkin, either by building ROS nodes with catkin but without the need to write ROS specific code. Creating a ROS node out of ViSP becomes simple
    2. ROS nodes that allow to control specific hardware such as for the moment robots that can be controlled only in our lab due to proprietary drivers: Afma6 gantry robot, Biclops PT head, ADEPT Viper 650 and 850 robots described here and other robots that anyone can buy and use with open-source drivers interfaced in ViSP: Pioneer mobile robot, Parrot bebop2 drone. This tutorial explains how to visual-servo a Parrot bebop2 drone like in the next video.

    3. a tutorial that shows how to simulate a Franka Panda robot using CoppeliaSim. The simulation is a physical simulation with a model that has been accurately identified from a real Franka robot. All the details are in the paper:
      C. Gaz, M. Cognetti, A. Oliva, P. Robuffo Giordano, A. De Luca, Dynamic Identification of the Franka Emika Panda Robot With Retrieval of Feasible Parameters Using Penalty-Based Optimization. IEEE RA-L, 2019.

  • demo_pioneer: a set of ROS visual-servoing demos using a Pioneer robot and based on ViSP

Next tutorial

You are now ready to see the next Tutorial: How to create and build a project that uses ViSP and CMake on Unix or Windows that will show you how to use ViSP as a 3rd party to build your own project.