Reading Room
blog, news, case studies
From Simulation to Field: How to Validate Your ROS 2 Stack Before Going Outdoors
TL;DR: Moving a ROS 2 simulation to a real robot fails most often because of unmodeled physics, sensor noise, and timing assumptions that hold in Gazebo but not on wet grass. A disciplined ros 2 simulation to real robot workflow uses staged validation: unit tests on nodes, deterministic SIL runs, randomized scenarios, hardware-in-the-loop with real […]
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WebRTC on Robots: How to Stream Live Video from Your Rover to Any Browser
TL;DR: WebRTC on robots lets you stream live camera feeds from a mobile robot to modern browsers, often with sub-200 ms glass-to-glass latency on good networks, no plugins, and DTLS-SRTP encryption built in. This guide shows how to build a working WebRTC pipeline on a ROS 2 rover using gstreamer, webrtcbin, and a minimal signaling […]
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How to Write a URDF Model for a Mobile Robot: Step-by-Step with Leo Rover as an Example
TL;DR: A URDF (Unified Robot Description Format) file tells ROS 2 what your robot looks like, how its parts connect, and where each frame sits. This URDF mobile robot tutorial walks you through building a working xacro model for the Leo Rover: defining links and joints, attaching meshes, adding wheels with a differential-like 4-wheel skid-steer […]
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Introduction to ROS 2 Actions: How to Build Long-Running Tasks on a Mobile Robot
TL;DR: This ROS 2 actions tutorial shows you how to implement long-running tasks (navigation, docking, inspection sweeps) on a mobile robot using the rclpy action API. Actions extend the topic/service model with three channels: a goal, periodic feedback, and a final result, plus the ability to cancel mid-execution. You will see when to choose actions […]
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How to Build a CI/CD Pipeline for Your Robot Software (Yes, It’s Worth It)
TL;DR: A ROS 2 CI/CD pipeline automates building, testing, and deploying your robot software every time you push code. With GitHub Actions and the industrial_ci framework, you can catch broken dependencies, failing unit tests, and linter violations within minutes instead of discovering them in the field. This guide shows you a working workflow, explains why […]
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Recording and Replaying Field Data with ROS 2 Bags: A Research Workflow
TL;DR: ROS 2 bag recording and replay lets you capture selected topics your robot publishes during a field trial, then repeatably replay the data on a workstation to develop perception, SLAM, or control algorithms offline. Use the rosbag2 CLI with the MCAP storage plugin for large field datasets (chunk compression, fast random access, schema-aware), filter […]
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How to Use Docker for ROS 2 Development: A Practical Setup for Robotics Research Teams
TL;DR: Using ROS 2 Docker containers lets you isolate dependencies, reproduce builds across x86 and ARM64 (Jetson) hardware, and ship the same image tag from a developer laptop to a field robot. This guide shows a working Dockerfile based on ros:humble, how to run RViz and Gazebo with GPU acceleration, how to build multi-arch images […]
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What Is a Robot Digital Twin and How Do You Build One with ROS 2 and Gazebo?
TL;DR: A robot digital twin is a simulated, physics-aware replica of a physical robot that shares its kinematics, sensors, control interfaces, and ROS 2 topics with the real hardware. With ROS 2 (Humble or Jazzy) and Gazebo (Fortress for Humble, Harmonic for Jazzy, or Harmonic on Humble with matching packages), you can build a working […]
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Mobile Robot Platforms for Perimeter Security and Autonomous Patrol
TL;DR: A security robot UGV for autonomous patrol combines a rugged mobile base, redundant perception (LiDAR, thermal, RGB), and a ROS 2 navigation stack to repeat patrol routes, detect anomalies, and stream evidence to a control room. This article breaks down the technical requirements – locomotion, perception, autonomy, communications, and privacy compliance – and shows […]
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Robots in Analog Space Missions: How Earth Rovers Prepare Us for Mars
TL;DR: An analog space mission robot is a mobile platform used in Earth-based simulations of lunar or Martian operations, where crews test procedures, hardware, and software in environments that mimic extraterrestrial conditions. At Fictionlab, we have seen the Leo Rover deployed in habitats and field sites, from LunAres in Piła to AATC in southern Poland, […]
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Construction Site Monitoring with UGVs: Use Cases, Challenges, and Early Results
TL;DR: Construction robot monitoring with unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) automates progress tracking, BIM-to-as-built comparison, and safety inspection on active sites. Mobile robots like the Leo Rover carry LiDAR, RGB-D, and 360° cameras to capture repeatable route data. What works today: scheduled scan-to-BIM capture, thermal and PPE checks, and ROS 2-based autonomy on graded surfaces. What […]
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Forest and Environmental Research with Mobile Robots: How Field Ecologists Use UGVs
TL;DR: Forest robot research uses unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to collect repeatable, georeferenced data under tree canopies where GNSS is degraded and drones lose line of sight to the forest floor. Field ecologists deploy mobile robots like the Leo Rover with LiDAR, multispectral cameras, soil probes, and ROS 2 navigation stacks to map understory structure, […]
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