Terry & the path to an autonomous robot
Ben Martin
https://linux.conf.au/schedule/30002/...
Learn about 'Terry' which uses the Robotic Operating System (ROS). Note that ROS is a FOSS stack that runs on Ubuntu Linux rather than an operating system in it's own right.
The latest iteration the Terry robot includes mapping and navigation, multiple Kinect sensors, a robotic arm for manipulation, IMU, and LED matrix display. Getting here from there has involved an iteration using the BeagleBone Black at it's core (presented at OSDC 2014), then moving to the current quad core Atom CPU to be able to process depth image data to build and use maps.
I'll also talk about Tiny Tim; a tiny teleop robot I made in ‹24hrs. The difference between simple Teleop (joystick to move robot) and the ability to process higher level commands with more autonomy ('bring me a beer') is vast and moves a robot from an 8 bit micro controller to more of a desktop machine processing power.