5.0 KiB
ROS–Unity Integration: Server Endpoint
A walkthrough of the important components of a ROS TCP endpoint script using the robotics_demo
package as a example.
The following is an example of a server endpoint Python script that:
- Gets parameters from
rosparam
- Creates corresponding ROS Publisher, Subscriber, and Service objects to interact with topics and services running in ROS network
- Starts TCP Server process to handle incoming and outgoing connections
#!/usr/bin/env python
import rospy
from ros_tcp_endpoint import TcpServer, RosPublisher, RosSubscriber, RosService
from robotics_demo.msg import PosRot, UnityColor
from robotics_demo.srv import PositionService
def main():
ros_node_name = rospy.get_param("/TCP_NODE_NAME", 'TCPServer')
buffer_size = rospy.get_param("/TCP_BUFFER_SIZE", 1024)
connections = rospy.get_param("/TCP_CONNECTIONS", 10)
tcp_server = TcpServer(ros_node_name, buffer_size, connections)
rospy.init_node(ros_node_name, anonymous=True)
tcp_server.start({
'pos_srv': RosService('position_service', PositionService),
'pos_rot': RosPublisher('pos_rot', PosRot, queue_size=10),
'color': RosSubscriber('color', UnityColor, tcp_server)
})
rospy.spin()
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
Import Statements for Services and Messages
from ros_tcp_endpoint import TcpServer, RosPublisher, RosSubscriber, RosService
from robotics_demo.msg import PosRot, UnityColor
from robotics_demo.srv import PositionService
Creating the Server
Requires:
- The ROS node name
tcp_server = TcpServer(ros_node_name, buffer_size, connections)
The ros_node_name
argument is required and the buffer_size
and connections
are optional. They are set to 1024
and 10
by default if not provided in the constructor arguments.
Instantiate the ROS Node
rospy.init_node(ros_node_name, anonymous=True)
Starting the Server
tcp_server.start({
'pos_srv': RosService('position_service', PositionService),
'pos_rot': RosPublisher('pos_rot', PosRot, queue_size=10),
'color': RosSubscriber('color', UnityColor, tcp_server)
})
rospy.spin()
Source Destination Dictionary
The argument to start() is a dictionary keyed by topic or service with the corresponding ROS communication class as the value. The dictionary is used by the TCP server to direct messages to and from the ROS network.
ROS Publisher
A ROS Publisher allows a Unity component to send messages on a given topic to other ROS nodes. It requires three components:
- Topic name
- ROS message class generated from running
catkin_make
command - Queue size (optional)
RosPublisher('pos_rot', PosRot, queue_size=10)
ROS Subscriber
A ROS Subscriber allows a Unity component to receive messages from other ROS nodes on a given topic. It requires three components:
- Topic name
- ROS message class generated from running
catkin_make
command - The tcp server that will connect to Unity
RosSubscriber('color', UnityColor, tcp_server)
ROS Service
A ROS Service is similar to a RosPublisher, in that a Unity component sends a Request message to another ROS node. Unlike a Publisher, the Unity component then waits for a Response back. It requires two components:
- Service name
- ROS Service class generated from running
catkin_make
command
RosService('position_service', PositionService)
Unity Service
A Unity Service is similar to a RosSubscriber, in that a Unity component receives a Request message from another ROS node. It then sends a Response back. It requires three components:
- Service name
- ROS Service class generated from running
catkin_make
command - The tcp server that will connect to Unity
UnityService('unity_service', PositionService, tcp_server)
Parameters
The following parameters can be hardcoded, but for the sake of portability, we recommend setting the parameters using the rosparam set
command, or a rosparam
YAML file.
ros_node_name = rospy.get_param("/TCP_NODE_NAME", 'TCPServer')
buffer_size = rospy.get_param("/TCP_BUFFER_SIZE", 1024)
connections = rospy.get_param("/TCP_CONNECTIONS", 10)
In addition, the TCPServer class uses the ROS parameters ROS_IP and ROS_TCP_PORT to determine what ip & port to listen on.
Note: Read more about the ROS Parameter Server here.
Launch File
An example launch file that will set the appropriate ROSPARAM values required for a parameterized TCP Endpoint script.
<launch>
<env name="ROS_IP" value="127.0.0.1"/>
<env name="ROS_HOSTNAME" value="$(env ROS_IP)"/>
<param name="ROS_IP" type="str" value="$(env ROS_IP)" />
<param name="ROS_TCP_PORT" type="int" value="10000" />
<param name="TCP_NODE_NAME" type="str" value="TCPServer" />
<group ns="position_service_and_endpoint">
<node pkg="robotics_demo" name="position_service" type="position_service.py"/>
<node pkg="robotics_demo" name="server_endpoint" type="server_endpoint.py"/>
</group>
</launch>