@cjds and @erelson I just opened #16 and noticed I must have forgotten to setup PR testing on this repo- sorry.

It is setup on other PRs for example: ZebraDevs/fetch_robots#57

Similar to: ZebraDevs/fetch_msgs#17

There is also:
http://docs.ros.org/api/sensor_msgs/html/msg/BatteryState.html
can this be used instead? Also are these message currnenty posted and if so on which topic? It would be awesome to expand the README a bit.

I saw this come in and had a few thoughts. It would be grea to:

• Add a way to indicate no-measurement for temperature and current. Possibly reuse REP 117 standards? http://www.ros.org/reps/rep-0117.html (Just a documentation update. )
• Add a max_current field. That way you know what fraction of the breaker you're using.
• Add a max_temperature field. That way you know if you're close to thermal shutdown.

They could also possibly be "rated_current" or "rated_temperater" it's a little bit more application specific, but less intuitive to be read quickly.

Thoughts?

This issue is to track thoughts on a state-of-charge message. A few references:

• pr2_msgs/PowerState
• kobuki_msgs/PowerSystemEvent

@dbking77 feel free to add thoughts from the state-of-charge estimation side. @ablasdel please add any thoughts regarding how you might display this in a dashboard.