Category: Courses

ROS2 Basics (Rust) – 4-Month Self-Study Course Syllabus

\Course Description:\ \This comprehensive 4-month self-study course is designed for motivated beginners and intermediate learners eager to master the fundamentals of ROS2 (Robot Operating System 2) using the Rust programming language. Robotics is a rapidly evolving field, and a strong understanding of ROS2, combined with the performance and safety benefits of Rust, provides a powerful toolkit for developing robust robotic applications. This course will guide you from the core concepts of ROS2 and Rust to building practical robotic behaviors, emphasizing hands-on learning and real-world examples. By the end of this course, you will be proficient in creating, managing, and debugging ROS2 nodes, understanding message passing, services, actions, parameters, and the broader ROS2 ecosystem, all while leveraging the unique advantages of Rust.\

\Primary Learning Objectives:\ \ \Understand the core architecture and concepts of ROS2.\ \Gain proficiency in Rust programming fundamentals relevant to robotics.\ \Develop, compile, and run ROS2 nodes using Rust.\ \Implement various ROS2 communication paradigms: topics, services, and actions.\ \Work with ROS2 parameters and logging.\ \Utilize ROS2 tools for introspection and debugging.\ \Integrate Rust-based ROS2 applications with other ROS2 components.\ \Apply learned concepts to build a cumulative robotics project.\ \

\Necessary Materials:\ \ \A computer with a modern operating system (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or newer recommended for best ROS2 compatibility).\ \Internet connection for downloading software and resources.\ \Admin privileges to install necessary software.\ \Basic understanding of command-line interface (CLI) operations.\ \No prior Rust or ROS2 experience is strictly required, but basic programming logic is beneficial.\ \

\Course Content: Weekly Lessons\ \This course is structured into 14 distinct weekly lessons, designed to be completed over 16 weeks, allowing for flexibility and deeper exploration.\

Week 1-2: Module 1 – Rust Foundations for Robotics (Lesson 1 & 2)

\Lesson 1: Introduction to Rust for Robotics\ \ \\Learning Objectives:\
\ \Understand why Rust is a suitable language for robotics.\ \Set up a Rust development environment.\ \Write and compile a basic “Hello, World\!” program in Rust.\ \ \ \\Key Vocabulary:\
\ \\Rust:\ A systems programming language focused on safety, speed, and concurrency.\ \\Cargo:\ Rust’s package manager and build system.\ \\Toolchain:\ The collection of tools used for Rust development (compiler, standard library, etc.).\ \\\main\ function:\ The entry point of a Rust executable program.\ \ \ \\Content:\
\Rust is gaining significant traction in robotics due to its emphasis on memory safety without garbage collection, strong type system, and excellent performance, making it ideal for real-time and safety-critical applications. This lesson will walk you through installing Rust and Cargo, and then writing your first basic Rust program. We will cover the \main\ function, basic output using \println\!\, and how Cargo is used to build and run your projects.\ \ \\Hands-on Example:\
\ \Install Rust using \rustup\.\ \Create a new Cargo project: \cargo new hello\_rust\_robot\.\ \Navigate into the \hello\_rust\_robot\ directory.\ \Modify \src/main.rs\ to print “Hello, Rust Robot\!”.\ \Compile and run the program: \cargo run\.\ \ \ \

\Lesson 2: Rust Basics: Variables, Data Types, and Control Flow\ \ \\Learning Objectives:\
\ \Declare and use variables in Rust.\ \Understand fundamental Rust data types (integers, floats, booleans, characters, strings).\ \Implement control flow structures (if/else, loops).\ \ \ \\Key Vocabulary:\
\ \\Variable:\ A named storage location for a value.\ \\Mutable (\mut\):\ Keyword to indicate a variable whose value can change.\ \\Immutable:\ Variables whose values cannot change after being set.\ \\Integer:\ Whole numbers (e.g., \i32\, \u64\).\ \\Floating-point:\ Numbers with decimal points (e.g., \f32\, \f64\).\ \\Boolean:\ \true\ or \false\ values.\ \\Char:\ Single Unicode scalar value.\ \\String slice (\\&str\):\ Immutable view into a string.\ \\String (\String\):\ Growable, owned UTF-8 string.\ \\If/Else:\ Conditional execution.\ \\Loop:\ Repetitive execution.\ \ \ \\Content:\
\Building upon our first program, this lesson delves into the foundational elements of Rust programming. We’ll explore how to declare variables, emphasizing Rust’s immutability by default and the use of the \mut\ keyword for mutability. We will cover common data types essential for robotic applications (e.g., sensor readings, motor commands). Finally, we’ll learn about \if/else\ statements for decision-making and various loop constructs (\loop\, \while\, \for\) for repetitive tasks, which are critical for controlling robot behavior.\ \ \\Hands-on Example:\
\ \Create a new Cargo project: \cargo new rust\_robot\_basics\.\ \In \src/main.rs\, define a mutable integer variable for robot speed.\ \Use an \if/else\ statement to check if the speed is above a certain threshold and print different messages.\ \Implement a \for\ loop to iterate a specified number of times, simulating a robot moving steps.\ \Experiment with different data types for representing sensor readings (e.g., \f64\ for distance).\ \ \ \

Week 3-4: Module 2 – Introduction to ROS2 and rclrs (Lesson 3 & 4)

\Lesson 3: Understanding ROS2 Architecture and Concepts\ \ \\Learning Objectives:\
\ \Explain the evolution from ROS1 to ROS2.\ \Identify key architectural components of ROS2.\ \Understand the concept of DDS (Data Distribution Service) and its role in ROS2.\ \ \ \\Key Vocabulary:\
\ \\ROS2:\ Robot Operating System 2.\ \\DDS:\ Data Distribution Service, the communication middleware for ROS2.\ \\Node:\ An executable process that performs a computation.\ \\Topic:\ A named bus over which nodes exchange messages.\ \\Message:\ A data structure for transmitting information over topics.\ \\Service:\ A request/response communication mechanism between nodes.\ \\Action:\ A long-running, goal-oriented communication mechanism.\ \\Package:\ A fundamental unit of organization in ROS2.\ \ \ \\Content:\
\This lesson provides a foundational understanding of ROS2. We’ll start by briefly discussing why ROS2 was developed and its advantages over ROS1, particularly its distributed nature enabled by DDS. We will then dive into the core concepts: nodes, topics, messages, services, and actions, which form the building blocks of any ROS2 application. Understanding these concepts is crucial before we start writing Rust code that interacts with ROS2.\ \ \\Hands-on Example:\
\ \Install ROS2 Humble (or your chosen distribution) on your system.\ \Source your ROS2 environment.\ \Run \ros2 run demo\_nodes\_cpp talker\ and \ros2 run demo\_nodes\_py listener\ in separate terminals to observe topic communication.\ \Use \ros2 topic list\, \ros2 topic echo /topic\_name\, \ros2 node list\ to explore the running demo.\ \ \ \