The ROS Multimaster Extension for Simplified Deployment of Multi Robot Systems
This tutorial chapter describes how to set up a multi robot system in ROS with the multimaster_fkie package. The package adds ROS support for multiple hosts, which can be added and removed from the network at any time without affecting the remaining nodes. The presented multi master extension works with the unmodified ROS master and does not change the way ROS nodes communicate or establish connections with each other. Thus, the multi robot system remains fully compatible with a single master ROS system. It is easy to set up and execute the ROS masters independently on each robot. The multi master extension takes care of synchronization and merges the masters into a unified network view. For better usability, the package includes a graphical user interface for monitoring, configuration and control of the ROS components. The latest version can be downloaded from https:/github.com/fkie/multimaster_fkie. You can also install the package from http:/packages.ros.org. The multimaster_fkie package works with all ROS versions since groovy.