ROS-enabling Android applications¶

android_core provides Android Library Projects to help you write ROS applications for Android. The library projects are named for the Android API level they require (e.g. android_gingerbread_mr1 and android_honeycomb_mr2). Each class or feature is defined in the library project that represents the minimum version of Android required for it to work.

Your application can depend on multiple library projects. This allows you to easily target your application for different API levels.

Beyond specific features, android_core defines the pattern of combining the Android View and NodeMain concepts to enable the development of data driven Android UIs (e.g. RosTextView).

android_gingerbread_mr1 library project¶

android_gingerbread_mr1 (API level 10) is the lowest API level supported. It provides the base Activity (RosActivity) and Service (NodeMainExecutorService) for executing and managing the lifecycle of your NodeMains.

A few of the other features provided include:

• camera publisher
• image view
• orientation publisher

android_honeycomb_mr2 library project¶

android_honeycomb_mr2 (API level 13) provides features that require multitouch and other APIs that are only available in devices with Android Honeycomb MR2 or higher.

A few of the features provided include:

• 2D mapping and navigation
• 2D laser scan visualization
• virtual joystick