simple-ros-comm

Introduction

simple-ros-comm is a package developed for the users who need a easy and flexible communication method from a hardware (or software) interface to ROS and/or ROS2. The package is developed using C++ on the ROS/ROS2 side, and is language invariant on the machine side (the side that you want ROS/ROS2 talks to). It allows the user to create customized "data protocol" by editing how the transmitted string is encoded. It does not support data type except for string at the moment.

You might be also interested in checking out simple-slicer-comm in here: https://github.com/bingogome/simple-slicer-comm

Citation

Please consider to cite the following paper in which this module was first used in published work.

@inproceedings{liu2022inside, title={Inside-out tracking and projection mapping for robot-assisted transcranial magnetic stimulation}, author={Liu, Yihao and Liu, Shuya Joshua and Sefati, Shahriar and Jing, Tian and Kheradmand, Amir and Armand, Mehran}, booktitle={Optical Architectures for Displays and Sensing in Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality (AR, VR, MR) III}, volume={11931}, pages={57--70}, year={2022}, organization={SPIE} }

Liu, Y., Liu, S. J., Sefati, S., Jing, T., Kheradmand, A., & Armand, M. (2022, March). Inside-out tracking and projection mapping for robot-assisted transcranial magnetic stimulation. In Optical Architectures for Displays and Sensing in Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality (AR, VR, MR) III (Vol. 11931, pp. 57-70). SPIE.

Dependencies

• ROS/ROS2. The package can be used in ROS or ROS2 alone, or together.
  • ROS. The package is tested on Ubuntu 20.04 with ROS noetic, but should be able to run on any typical version. Send a request to the developer if it does not work on your verson of ROS.
  • ROS2. The package is tested on Ubuntu 20.04 with ROS galactic, but should be able to run on any typical version. Send a request to the developer if it does not work on your verson of ROS.
• Boost.asio. Boost is supported by ROS and ROS2, so no external installation is needed.

Instruction

ROS1 - Send some data into ROS1

• Clone the repository to a directory. The cloned directory is DIR_UPPER/simple-ros-comm.
• Create a symbolic link (similar to shortcut as in Windows) to your ROS workspace DIR_WS/src folder. (Or simply copy it to there if you don't need to edit the code).

cd DIR_WS/src
ln -s DIR_UPPER/simple-ros-comm/ros_side/simple_ros_comm DIR_WS/src/simple_ros_comm

• Build the package

cd DIR_WS
source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
catkin build

• Start talking

roscore
# on new terminal
cd DIR_WS
source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
source DIR_WS/devel/setup.bash
rosrun simple_ros_comm node_ros_side_in # the node to receive encoded command in ROS
# You should have a separate program that sends encoded command to a port (specified by config_ros.yaml)
# Use rostopic echo /SimpleRosComm/msg_received on ROS side to test if the msg is received

• Remember to close the port by sending the port an ending message. See config_ros.yaml.
• Change the port, ending message, and more in configuration file config_ros.yaml as needed.

ROS1 - Send some data from ROS1

• Build the package as described in ROS1 - Send some data into ROS1.
• Run node_ros_side_out node
• Create a node (or simply use your own node) that publishes data into /SimpleRosComm/msg_to_send. An example is in ros_side/simple_ros_comm/src/nodes/node_test_ros_side_out.cpp

ROS2 - Send some data into ROS2

• Clone the repository to a directory. The cloned directory is DIR_UPPER/simple-ros-comm.
• Create a symbolic link (similar to shortcut as in Windows) to your ROS workspace DIR_WS/src folder. (Or simply copy it to there if you don't need to edit the code).

cd DIR_WS/src
ln -s DIR_UPPER/simple-ros-comm/ros_side/simple_ros2_comm DIR_WS/src/simple_ros2_comm

• Build the package

cd DIR_WS
source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash
colcon build

• Start talking

cd DIR_WS
source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash
source DIR_WS/install/setup.bash
ros2 run simple_ros2_comm node_ros2_side_in # the node to receive encoded command in ROS2
# You should have a separate program that sends encoded command to a port (specified by config_ros2.yaml)
# Use rostopic echo /SimpleRos2Comm_msg_received on ROS2 side to test if the msg is received

• Remember to close the port by sending the port an ending message. See config_ros2.yaml.
• Change the port, ending message, and more in configuration file config_ros2.yaml as needed.

A demo showing ROSIn and ROS2In working together

https://github.com/bingogome/documents/blob/main/simple-ros-comm/ros_n_ros2in-matlab-demo.mkv

All other demo

https://github.com/bingogome/documents/tree/main/simple-ros-comm

Customizability

You can customize your own communication protocol. Just go ahead and modify the way how the messege is handled. See ROSSideIn::HandleIncoming()

ROSSideIn

Note for ROSSideIn, I implemented it using asio and async_receive_from(), which is a blocking function. To end the node gracefully, be sure to send an ending messege to the port. Otherwise, it won't stop until a messege is received. Multiple ROSSideIn channels are possible. I am thinking two ways: 1. multiplexing using 1 port. 2. spawn multiple nodes that each owns a different port and a ROSSideIn class.