How do you handle ROS compatibility across devices?

If you work with robots, chances are you use ROS, the Robot Operating System. ROS is a framework that allows you to create and run software for different kinds of robots. But what happens when you need to communicate with multiple devices that run different versions of ROS or have different hardware configurations? How do you handle ROS compatibility across devices?

1 Why ROS compatibility matters

ROS compatibility is essential for many reasons, such as being able to run code on different robots without errors, reusing and sharing code with other developers and projects, and leveraging the ROS ecosystem of libraries, tools, and packages. However, achieving ROS compatibility across devices is not always easy. Challenges you may face include different ROS distributions or versions with different features or dependencies, different operating systems or architectures that need different installation or compilation methods, different network configurations or protocols that can affect communication or security, and different hardware or sensors that require different drivers or interfaces.

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Gerard Kinneen

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My robot runs ros-kinetic and my local computer runs ros-noetic. The two cannot communicate because message versions differ. I, therefore, used a docker image based on ubuntu 16.04 and installed ros-kinetic inside it. To communicate with the robot both based on roscpp and to use rviz, I had to run the docker container with --net host and --privileged and gui options outlined in this tutorial. Unfortunately, I only manage to run one ros-node per container. (If I launch another container via docker exec --container_name I cannot establish a connection with the ros network anymore.) I thus create an entirely new container and install all required dependencies to launch a second ros-node.

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2 How to check ROS compatibility

Before you start working with multiple devices, you need to check their ROS compatibility. The rosversion command can be used to verify the ROS distribution and version of each device - for example, rosversion -d will show the distribution name, while rosversion roscpp will show the version number of the roscpp package. Additionally, the rosdep command can be used to check and install the dependencies of each package - for instance, rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y will install the dependencies of all packages in the src directory. Furthermore, the roslaunch command can be used to launch and test nodes on each device - for instance, roslaunch my_package my_node.launch will launch the my_node node from the my_package package. Lastly, you can use rostopic, rosservice, and rosparam commands to inspect and interact with topics, services, and parameters on each device - for example, rostopic list will show you the list of topics, rosservice call /my_service will call the my_service service, and rosparam get /my_param will get the value of the my_param parameter.

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3 How to improve ROS compatibility

If you find any issues or incompatibilities between your devices, you can use several strategies to improve your ROS compatibility. Upgrading or downgrading your ROS distribution or version to match other devices is one option, and the apt-get command can be used to install or remove specific ROS packages. Additionally, a cross-compilation tool can be used to build code for different operating systems or architectures. For example, the ros_cross_compile tool from AWS RoboMaker can be used to compile code for Ubuntu, Debian, or Amazon Linux on ARM or x86 platforms. Network configuration tools like the zeroconf_avahi_suite package can enable automatic discovery and configuration of devices using Zeroconf and Avahi. Finally, a hardware abstraction layer like the robot_hardware package from ROS Industrial can provide a common API for industrial robots.

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4 How to learn more about ROS compatibility

If you want to learn more about ROS compatibility across devices, you can use a variety of resources, such as the ROS wiki for documentation and troubleshooting tips, the ROS answers for questions and answers, the ROS discourse for discussions and ideas, the ROS blogs for news and updates, and the ROS books for comprehensive guides. ROS compatibility across devices is a key skill for any robot developer; by following these tips, you can ensure your code works smoothly and efficiently on different robots. Additionally, you can benefit from the rich and diverse ROS ecosystem that offers endless possibilities for robot applications.

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5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How do you handle ROS compatibility across devices?

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1 Why ROS compatibility matters

2 How to check ROS compatibility

3 How to improve ROS compatibility

4 How to learn more about ROS compatibility

5 Here’s what else to consider

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