Lentin is the author of Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming – 3rd Edition, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?
Lentin: Robotics Software Development
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Lentin: I started working in Robotics in 2010. I used to give talks and workshops in the field of Robotics, Python, C++ and OpenCV. Packt invited me to write a book after seeing some of my presentations online. The first book was purely an experiment, but after writing the first book, I got really interested in writing the next book, and then series of books in Robotics and ROS. The main motivation in writing books was learning new technologies and getting more exposure to the technology.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Lentin: I will research the relevance of the technology and its community before writing any book.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Lentin: The first book was very challenging. I used to do blogs related to technology before start writing books. Blogging helped me to get started. In order to reach a good understanding of writing a book, it took me at least 5 months.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Lentin: The main technology discussing in the book is Robot Operating System (ROS). ROS is one of the popular robot software frameworks for programming complex robots. Many robot companies and universities are currently using ROS now. The use of ROS in robots will be more in the upcoming years.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Lentin: The uniqueness of the book is in choosing of topics. I will be mostly picking relevant topics useful in the ROS community.
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Lentin: Applying of ROS knowledge in real life projects
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Lentin: Keep updating your knowledge. Gradually most of the technologies will outdate, so updating your knowledge is very important.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Lentin: robocademy.com
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Lentin: discourse.ros.org
robohub.org
roboticsbackend.com
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Lentin: Packt has a great team for supporting aspiring authors. The first time authors will have difficulties when they start a project. The Packt team will help the author to fulfill their dream project.
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Lentin: Yes, ROS Communities
discourse.ros.org
www.reddit.com/r/robotics
www.reddit.com/r/ROS
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Lentin: https://ww www.reddit.com/r/robotics
www.reddit.com/r/ROS
news.ycombinator.com
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Lentin: I used write the book in my free time and in weekends. Rest of the time, I will be focusing on my consulting job.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Lentin: Passion in technology and writing is very important before getting started with writing book.
You can find Lentin’s book on Amazon by following this link
