Explore the Robot Operating System (ROS) middleware in this comprehensive 57-minute talk by Mike Anderson from The PTR Group, Inc. Gain insights into ROS's extensive features, large user community, and significant ecosystem supporting sophisticated robotics platform development. Learn about ROS installation on Linux systems and its application in creating small mobile robotic platforms. Delve into core ROS components, concepts, filesystem specifics, computation graph levels, naming structures, and name resolution. Discover how to describe robots using URDF and build a basic chassis through practical examples. Examine the process of creating packages, launch files, and implementing wheels. Get hands-on experience with Gazebo and explore publisher/subscriber patterns. Perfect for robotics enthusiasts, developers, and anyone interested in advanced middleware for robotic applications.