Advise on getting started with a multiple robot project
I am an instructor at the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, NM. We are about to start a large project in which we are building an indoor scale model of a Martian terrain on which we will have students build and test various rovers and robots. I am interested in using ROS and have successfully installed Ubuntu 12.04 and ROS Hydro on a laptop. I ran through several of the tutorials and I like what I see so far.
So I am just looking for some general advise on which tools are the latest and best for my application. Our basic system layout is:
1: A "Rover" will have a small laptop or similar computer onboard running Ubuntu/ROS
2: The rovers will be on a wireless network possibly 5 or 6 at a time each controlled by a different operator through the LAN
3: There will be a Desktop PC to serve as a web server/bridge so the rovers can be controlled/monitored over the LAN and possibly over the web. robotwebtools/rosbridge/ros3djs...
As our program proceeds we will hopefully be able to use ROS/Gazebo and contribute back to it as our students develop models and software to support it.
The program is going to start in July so I want to make sure I get going in the right direction. I need as stable/reliable platform as possible, so I assume the Hydro will be better than Indigo for now unless we will be missing out on too many new features.
Thanks for any feedback and we look forward to working with/joining your community.
Jonathan West
