ROS

Filesystem Command-Line Tools

apt-cache search ros-indigo

Search for available packages on Ubuntu

rospack/rosstack

A tool inspecting packages/stacks. http://wiki.ros.org/rospack

Usage: rospack find [package]

roscd

Changes directories to a package or stack. http://wiki.ros.org/rosbash

Usage: roscd [package[/subdir]]

rosls

Lists package or stack information. http://wiki.ros.org/rosbash

Usage: rosls [package[/subdir]]

roscreate-pkg

Creates a new ROS package. http://wiki.ros.org/roscreate

Usage: roscreate-pkg [package name]

roscreate-stack

Creates a new ROS stack. http://wiki.ros.org/roscreate

Usage: roscreate-stack [path]

rosdep

Installs ROS package system dependencies. http://wiki.ros.org/rosdep

Usage: rosdep install [package]

rosmake

Builds a ROS package. http://wiki.ros.org/rosmake

Usage: rosmake [package]

roswtf

Displays errors and warnings about a running ROS system or launch file. http://wiki.ros.org/roswtf

Usage: roswtf or roswtf [file]

Common Command-Line Tools

roscore

A collection of nodes and programs that are pre-requisites of a ROS-based system. You must have a roscore running in order for ROS nodes to communicate. http://wiki.ros.org/roscore

Usage: roscore

rosmsg

The rosmsg command-line tool displays information about ROS message types. http://wiki.ros.org/rosmsg

Usage: rosmsg [options]

rossrv

The rossrv command-line tool displays information about ROS services. http://wiki.ros.org/rosmsg

Usage: rossrv [options]

rosrun

The rosrun allows you to run an executable in an arbitrary package from anywhere without having to give its full path. http://wiki.ros.org/rosbash

Usage: rosrun package executable

rosnode

Displays debugging information about ROS nodes, including publications, subscriptions and connections. http://wiki.ros.org/rosnode

Usage: rosnode [options]

roslaunch

Starts ROS nodes locally and remotely via SSH, as well as setting parameters on the parameter server. http://wiki.ros.org/roslaunch

Usage: roslaunch [options]

rostopic

A tool for displaying debug information about ROS topics, including publishers, subscribers, publishing rate, and messages. http://wiki.ros.org/rostopic

Usage: rostopic [options]

rosparam

A tool for getting and setting ROS parameters on the parameter server using YAML-encoded files. http://wiki.ros.org/rosparam

Usage: rosparam [options]

rosservice

A tool for listing and querying ROS services. http://wiki.ros.org/rosservice

Usage: rosservice [options]

Logging Command-Line Tools

rosbag

This is a set of tools for recording from and playing back to ROS topics. It is intended to be high performance and avoids deserialization and reserialization of the messages. http://wiki.ros.org/rosbag

Usage: rosbag

Graphical Tools

rosgraph

Displays a graph of the ROS nodes that are currently running, as well as the ROS topics that connect them. http://wiki.ros.org/rosgraph

Usage: rosgraph

rqt

rqt is a Qt-based framework for GUI development for ROS. http://wiki.ros.org/rqt

Usage: rqt

rqt_bag

rqt_bag provides a GUI plugin for displaying and replaying ROS bag files. http://wiki.ros.org/rqt_bag

Usage: rqt_bag

rqt_consol

rqt_console provides a GUI plugin for displaying and filtering ROS messages. http://wiki.ros.org/rqt_consol

Usage: rqt_consol

tf Command-Line Tools

rosrun tf

A tool that prints the information about a particular transformation between a source frame and a target frame. http://wiki.ros.org/tf

Usage: rosrun tf [options]]

Workspaces

Create workspace

mkdir catkin_ws
cd catkin_ws
wstool init src
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

Add repo to workspace

roscd
cd ../src
wstool set repo_name --git http://github.com/org/repo_name.git --version=indigo-devel
wstool up

Resolve dependencies in workspace

sudo rosdep init # only once
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro=indigo -y

Packages

Create a package

catkin_create_pkg package_name [dependencies ...]

Package folders

include/package_name   # C++ header files
src                    # Source files, Python libraries in subdirectories
scripts                # Python nodes and scripts
msg, srv, action       # Message, Service, and Action definitions

Release repo packages

catkin_generate_changelog
# review & commit changelogs"
catkin_prepare_release
bloom-release --track indigo --ros-distro indigo repo_name

CMakeLists.txt

Skeleton

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.3)
project(package_name)
find_package(catkin REQUIRED)
catkin_package()

Package dependencies

find_package(catkin REQUIRED COMPONENTS roscpp)
catkin_package(
  INCLUDE_DIRS include
  LIBRARIES ${PROJECT_NAME}
  CATKIN_DEPENDS roscpp)

To use headers or libraries in a package, or to use a package’s exported CMake macros, express a build-time dependency. Tell dependent packages what headers or libraries to pull in when your package is declared as a catkin component. Note that any packages listed as CATKIN_DEPENDS dependencies must also be declared as a <run_depend> in package.xml.

Messages, services

find_package(catkin REQUIRED COMPONENTS message_generation std_msgs)
add_message_files(FILES MyMessage.msg)
add_service_files(FILES MyService.msg)
generate_messages(DEPENDENCIES std_msgs)
catkin_package(CATKIN_DEPENDS message_runtime std_msgs)

These go after find_package(), but before catkin_package().

Build libraries, executables

add_library(${PROJECT_NAME} src/main)
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME}_node src/main)
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME}_node ${catkin_LIBRARIES})

These go after the catkin_package() call.

Installation

install(TARGETS ${PROJECT_NAME} DESTINATION ${CATKIN_PACKAGE_LIB_DESTINATION})
install(TARGETS ${PROJECT_NAME}_node DESTINATION ${CATKIN_PACKAGE_BIN_DESTINATION})
install(PROGRAMS scripts/myscript DESTINATION ${CATKIN_PACKAGE_BIN_DESTINATION})
install(DIRECTORY launch DESTINATION ${CATKIN_PACKAGE_SHARE_DESTINATION})

These go after the catkin_package() call.

Running System

Run ROS using plain

roscore

Running roslaunch will run its own roscore automatically

roslaunch my_package package_launchfile.launch

Nodes, topics, messages

rosnode list
rostopic list
rostopic echo cmd_vel
rostopic hz cmd_vel
rostopic info cmd_vel
rosmsg show geometry_msgs/Twist

Remote connection - master’s ROS environment

export ROS_IP or ROS_HOSTNAME set to this machine’s network address
export ROS_MASTER_URI set to URI containing that IP or hostname

Remote connection - your environment

export ROS_IP or ROS_HOSTNAME set to your machine’s network address
export ROS_MASTER_URI set to the URI from the master

To debug, check ping from each side to the other, run roswtf on each side

ROS Console

vi $HOME/.ros/config/rosconsole.config
  log4j.logger.ros.package_name=DEBUG

Adjust using rqt_logger_level and monitor via rqt_console. Use the roslaunch --screen flag to force all node output to the screen, as if each declared <node> had the output="screen" attribute.

Developer Commands

catkin_make

Build all projects in workspace

Run from root folder. Example: ~/catkin_ws/.

catkin_make clean

Clean all projects in workspace

Run from root folder. Example: ~/catkin_ws/.