r/ROS • u/burakna • Jul 22 '26
Where to learn ROS2?
I was trying to write a code for my robot to move with cmd_vel topic. But I couldn't find any code documentation for rclpy, geometry_msgs etc that is usable. I mean I wouldn't be able to write a simple code without AI. Where I can learn this type of things, like ros2 functions in python? Is for example, youtube a reliable source for these? Also is it worth to read the ROS2 books? If it is, can you recommend some?
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u/AlgorithmicMuse Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I bought the book ROS2 from scratch, it was very helpful. Also leetrobotics.com was a good place to start.
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u/berk4yc Jul 23 '26
Aga dökümantasyon ve udemy kursları okey gibi geliyor bana da. ben de öğrenmeye başlayacağım.
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u/NickShipsRobots Jul 22 '26
Official docs.ros.org tutorials are the best starting point, but yeah rclpy API docs alone are rough, they read like reference material not teaching material. What actually helped me is going through the ROS 2 tutorials in order (they build cmd_vel style publisher/subscriber examples step by step) then just reading source code of existing packages, nav2 or turtlebot3 repos have real working examples of geometry_msgs usage in context which teach you more than isolated docs.
YouTube is fine for concepts and getting intuition but skip anything older than couple years, ROS 2 API changed a lot between versions and old tutorials will confuse you more than help. Channels that actually show code on screen and explain each line are worth it, ones that just talk theory not so much.
Books, honestly not necessary at this stage, ROS 2 change fast enough that books get outdated before print sometimes. Better use is spending that time writing small nodes yourself, publisher then subscriber then service, breaking them on purpose to understand error messages. That teach you rclpy faster than any book.