Now that we've installed ROS and set up our ROS workspace, we can discuss the advantages of using it. Why is learning ROS so important for robotics researchers? The reason is that ROS is becoming a generic framework to program all kinds of robots. So robots in universities and industries mainly use ROS.
Here are some famous robotics companies using ROS for their robots:
Figure 21: The companies using ROS
You can find them here:
- Fetch Robotics: http://fetchrobotics.com/
- Clearpath Robotics: https://www.clearpathrobotics.com/
- PAL Robotics: http://www.pal-robotics.com/en/home/
- Yujin Robot: http://en.yujinrobot.com/
- DJI: http://www.dji.com/
- ROBOTIS: http://www.robotis.com/html/en.php
The following is one of the job listings on Fetch Robotics for a robotics application development engineer (http://fetchrobotics.com/careers/):
Figure 22: A typical job requirement for an ROS application engineer
Knowledge of ROS will help you land a robotics application engineering job easily. If you go through the skill set of any job related to robotics, you're bound to find ROS on it.
There are independent courses and workshops in universities and industries to teach ROS development in robots. Knowing ROS will help you get an internship and MS, PhD, and postdoc opportunities from prestigious robotic institutions such as CMU's Robotics Institute (http://www.ri.cmu.edu/) and UPenn's GRAP Lab (https://www.grasp.upenn.edu/).
The following chapters will help you build a practical foundation of and core skills in ROS.