GPSBots: Pyro (Python Robotics) Tutorial: Introduction to Pyro

Pyro (Python Robotics) Tutorial: Introduction to Pyro

An Introduction to Pyro

Pyro is a bootable Knoppix linux OS which is entirely devoted to robotics. It uses Player/Stage/Gazebo for its simulator and uses a python interpreter to run the robot brains. It's an excellent and detailed package with many options and customizable extensions.

The simulator is broken into several parts. The World, the Robot, and the Brain. Check the source files below for the comments on what each line does.

The Robot

The first step is to define what makes up the hardware of your robot. You define the name, the sensors, the geometry, etc.

tut_pyro_1_robot.inc - The robot definition

tut_pyro_1_robot.py - When you instantiate Stage, you choose a "robot" which really just sets up the above robot.

The World

The world is the environment that the simulator runs in. In this tutorial, we'll be using Stage which is a simple 2d top-down simulator.
This requires three files:

tut_pyro_1_world.world - The world definition, sets up the map, robots, window, etc.

tut_pyro_1_world.cfg - The config file that stage reads, chooses which .world and which robot to include

tut_pyro_1_world.png - The background image to use for the map

The Brain

The Brain is what actually controls the robot. In this example, a simple wander with wall avoidance is used.

tut_pyro_1_brain1.py - The Brain, it controls the robot in the world

There is an excellent and detailed introduction at Robotics at Bowdoin College