Bringing ROS to the Classroom: A Modern Robotics Kit for Students

This study presents the implementation of the Robot Operating System (ROS) in the Robotics Kit developed at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, aimed at teaching mobile robotics at the undergraduate level. By replacing communication based on WebSockets and JSON with the ROS framework, the project aligns the kit with contemporary software standards in robotics. Six customized ROS packages were developed, responsible for functionalities such as teleoperation, odometry calculations using data from IMU and encoders, sensor fusion, and computer vision applications. This integration enables more efficient modular communication between the robot’s subsystems while providing a pedagogical foundation aligned with academic and industrial practices. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the developed functionalities, the remote and interactive visualization of data from the robot’s sensors, and the computational viability of this project on embedded hardware. These advancements contribute to the democratization of robotics education and equip students with practical experiences in contemporary tools and frameworks.