Web Development for ROS 2: A 4-Month Self-Study Course
Course Syllabus
Course Description:
This comprehensive 4-month self-study course is designed for individuals interested in integrating web technologies with ROS 2 (Robot Operating System 2). From fundamental web development concepts to advanced ROS 2 web interfaces, this course will equip you with the knowledge and practical skills to create interactive and remote control applications for robots. Whether you’re a motivated beginner with some programming exposure or an intermediate learner looking to specialize, this course will guide you through building real-world web-based robotic applications.
Primary Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand the core concepts of web development, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Grasp the fundamentals of ROS 2 architecture and communication mechanisms.
- Develop front-end web applications capable of interacting with ROS 2 topics, services, and actions.
- Implement back-end servers to facilitate communication between web clients and ROS 2.
- Utilize modern web frameworks and libraries for efficient ROS 2 web development.
- Design and build a complete web-based interface for controlling and monitoring a ROS 2 robot.
Necessary Materials:
- Computer with internet access
- Ubuntu 20.04+ (or a virtual machine running it)
- ROS 2 Foxy/Humble/Iron installed and configured
- Text editor/IDE (e.g., VS Code)
- Web browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox)
- Node.js and npm installed
- Basic understanding of command line interface
- (Optional but Recommended): A physical ROS 2 robot or a simulated robot environment (e.g., Gazebo)
Course Content: 14 Weekly Lessons
Week 1: Introduction to Web Development Fundamentals
Lesson Title: Laying the Web Foundation: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the roles of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in web development.
- Create basic static web pages using HTML.
- Apply styling to web pages using CSS.
Key Vocabulary:
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language): The standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser.
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): A style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in HTML.
- JavaScript: A high-level, often just-in-time compiled language that conforms to the ECMAScript standard. It enables interactive web pages.
- Element: A component of an HTML document or a JavaScript object.
- Attribute: Provides additional information about an HTML element.
Lesson Content:
Web development is the foundation upon which we’ll build our ROS 2 interfaces. It’s crucial to understand how web pages are structured, styled, and made interactive.
- HTML Structure: HTML provides the content and structure of a web page. We use tags like
<p>for paragraphs,<h1>for headings,<a>for links, and<img>for images. The basic structure includes<!DOCTYPE html>,<html>,<head>, and<body>. The<head>contains meta-information, while the<body>contains the visible content.
Example HTML Structure:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>My First Webpage</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello ROS 2 Web!</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph about web development.</p>
<button id="myButton">Click me!</button>
<script src="script.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
- CSS Styling: CSS is used to make web pages visually appealing. We can apply styles directly in HTML (inline), within the
<head>section (internal), or, most commonly, in an external.cssfile. CSS uses selectors (e.g., tag names, classes, IDs) to target HTML elements and apply properties (e.g.,color,font-size,background-color).
Example CSS (in style.css):
body {
font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
background-color: #f0f0f0;
text-align: center;
}
h1 {
color: #333;
}
p {
color: #666;
font-size: 18px;
}
#myButton {
padding: 10px 20px;
background-color: #007bff;
color: white;
border: none;
border-radius: 5px;
cursor: pointer;
}
- JavaScript Interaction: JavaScript brings dynamism to web pages. It allows us to manipulate HTML and CSS, respond to user actions (like clicks or form submissions), fetch data, and much more. JavaScript code is typically placed in an external
.jsfile and linked in the HTML, often at the end of the<body>for better performance.
Example JavaScript (in script.js):
document.getElementById('myButton').addEventListener('click', function() {
alert('Button clicked!');
});
Practical Hands-on Examples:
- Create a new folder named
my_first_web_app. - Inside, create
index.html,style.css, andscript.jsfiles. - Populate these files with the example code provided above.
- Open
index.htmlin your web browser. Observe the styled page and click the button to see the alert. - Experiment with changing colors, font sizes, and adding more HTML elements.
Week 2: Introduction to ROS 2 for Web Developers
Lesson Title: ROS 2 Essentials: Nodes, Topics, and Messages
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the fundamental concepts of ROS 2.
- Learn about ROS 2 nodes, topics, and messages.
- Set up a basic ROS 2 environment and run example nodes.
Key Vocabulary:
- ROS 2 (Robot Operating System 2): A flexible framework for writing robot software.
- Node: An executable process in ROS 2 that performs a specific task.
- Topic: A named bus over which nodes exchange messages.
- Message: A data structure that passes information between nodes via topics.
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