Simulator: ROS is an open-source, meta-operating system for robots, developed by Willow Garage. It provides the services you would expect from an operating system, including hardware abstraction, low-level device control, implementation of commonly-used functionality, message-passing between processes, and package management. If you have your own Linux machine, you are encouraged to download ROS and install it. If not, an account will be provided to you on a Linux machine in Gaurav's lab. You will be able to access this account remotely from the ISD cluster in SAL.

Robot: Limited access will be provided to the PR2 robot. The PR2 is an open and robust robot platform designed from the ground up for software developers and researchers. By eliminating the need to first build a hardware system and then re-implement code, the PR2 allows software experts to immediately create new functionality on the robot. Access is reserved for students whose projects show exceptional promise in simulation.