rosros

Simple unified interface to ROS1 / ROS2 Python API.

Auto-detects ROS version from run-time environment, and provides equivalent functionality in either ROS version.

Main use-cases:

• helper library for working with ROS messages and data types
• replacement for ROS1 / ROS2 Python API
• drop-in replacement for rospy to convert a ROS1 package to a ROS1/ROS2 package
• drop-in replacement for rclpy to convert a ROS2 package to a ROS1/ROS2 package

Requires the corresponding ROS Python libraries: rospy family for ROS1, rclpy for ROS2.

Full API documentation available at https://suurjaak.github.io/rosros.

• Example usage
  • Parameters
  • Constructor args in publishers and services
  • Timers
  • Bags
• ROS core functionality
  • Patches in ROS1
  • Patches in ROS2
• API helpers
• Converting an existing package
  • Existing ROS1 package to ROS1/ROS2 package
  • Existing ROS2 package to ROS1/ROS2 package
• Running tests
• Dependencies
• Attribution
• License

Example usage

A simple node that publishes a message on receiving a service request:

import rosros

def on_trigger(req):
    pub.publish(True)
    return {"success": True, "message": "Triggered!"}

rosros.init_node("mynode")
params = rosros.init_params(service="/trigger", topic="/triggerings")
srv = rosros.create_service(params["service"], "std_srvs/Trigger", on_trigger)
pub = rosros.create_publisher(params["topic"], "std_msgs/Bool", latch=True, queue_size=2)
rosros.spin()

Equivalent ROS1 code using rospy:

import rospy, std_msgs.msg, std_srvs.srv

def on_trigger(req):
    pub.publish(True)
    return {"success": True, "message": "Triggered!"}

rospy.init_node("mynode")
service = rospy.get_param("~service", "/trigger")
topic   = rospy.get_param("~topic",   "/triggerings")
rospy.set_param("~service", service)
rospy.set_param("~topic",   topic)
srv = rospy.Service(service, std_srvs.srv.Trigger, on_trigger)
pub = rospy.Publisher(topic, std_msgs.msg.Bool, latch=True, queue_size=2)
rospy.spin()

Equivalent ROS2 code using rclpy:

import rclpy, rclpy.qos, std_msgs.msg, std_srvs.srv

def on_trigger(req, resp):
    pub.publish(std_msgs.msg.Bool(data=True))
    resp.success = True
    resp.message = "Triggered!"
    return resp

rclpy.init()
node = rclpy.create_node("mynode")
service = node.get_parameter_or("service", rclpy.Parameter("", value="/trigger")).value
topic   = node.get_parameter_or("topic",   rclpy.Parameter("", value="/triggerings")).value
if not node.has_parameter("service"):
    node.declare_parameter("service", service)
if not node.has_parameter("topic"):
    node.declare_parameter("topic", topic)
srv = node.create_service(std_srvs.srv.Trigger, service, on_trigger)
qos = rclpy.qos.QoSProfile(depth=2, durability=rclpy.qos.DurabilityPolicy.TRANSIENT_LOCAL)
pub = node.create_publisher(std_msgs.msg.Bool, topic, qos)
rclpy.spin(node)

Any ROS2-only extras used will be ignored under ROS1, like topic QoS reliability.

Parameters

rosros provides a convenient way to auto-load all node parameters, and override or populate additional parameters from a nested dictionary.

rosros.init_node("mynode")
# If the given defaults were not among existing node parameters,
# they will be auto-declared on the node.
params = rosros.init_params({"my": {"nested": {"param1": 5, "param2": True}}})

Constructor args in publishers and services

rosros provides short-hand convenience wrappers for publishing messages, invoking services and returning service responses, without needing to create the message or service request/response class instance explicitly.

ROS1 already provides this short-hand in rospy, but ROS2 API requires the instances to be created explicitly.

rosros also supports giving message or service request as dictionary.

In rosros:

pub = rosros.create_publisher("/topic", "std_msgs/Bool")
pub.publish(True)
pub.publish(data=True)
pub.publish({"data": True})
pub.publish()

# Service callback need not accept any parameters if request object is irrelevant
srv = rosros.create_service("/service", "std_srvs/SetBool", lambda: {"message": "Triggered!"})

cli = rosros.create_client("/service", "std_srvs/SetBool")
cli.call(True)
cli.call(data=True)
cli.call({"data": True})
cli(True)

Equivalent ROS1 code using rospy:

pub = rospy.Publisher("/topic", std_msgs.msg.Bool, queue_size=0)
pub.publish(True)
pub.publish(data=True)
pub.publish(std_msgs.msg.Bool(True))
pub.publish()

srv = rospy.Service("/service", std_srvs.srv.SetBool, lambda req: {"message": "Triggered!"})

cli = rospy.ServiceProxy("/service", std_srvs.srv.SetBool)
cli.call(True)
cli.call(data=True)
cli.call(std_srvs.srv.SetBoolRequest(True))
cli(True)

Equivalent ROS2 code using rospy:

pub = mynode.create_publisher(std_msgs.msg.Bool, "/topic", 0)
pub.publish(std_msgs.msg.Bool(data=True))
pub.publish(std_msgs.msg.Bool(data=True))
pub.publish(std_msgs.msg.Bool(data=True))
pub.publish(std_msgs.msg.Bool())

def callback(req, resp):
  resp.message = "Triggered!"
  return resp
srv = mynode.create_service(std_srvs.srv.SetBool, "/service", callback)

cli = mynode.create_client(std_srvs.srv.SetBool, "/service")
cli.call(std_srvs.srv.SetBool.Request(data=True))

Timers

rosros provides convenience one-shot timers in ROS2 like ROS1 does.

Additionally, rosros provides an option to start invoking the timer callback immediately, instead of waiting one period before first call.

timer = rosros.create_timer(2, lambda: print("just once, after 2 sec"), oneshot=True)

timer = rosros.create_timer(5, lambda: print("every 5 sec, starting now"), immediate=True)

# Can take seconds, can take an explicit Duration object
timer = rosros.create_timer(rosros.api.make_duration(5), lambda: print("every 5 sec"))

Bags

rosros provides a unified interface for reading and writing ROS bags.

Bag format is the custom ROS format in ROS1, and the SQLite database format in ROS2.

bag = rosros.Bag("my.bag", mode="a")
print(bag)  # Prints bag metainfo, equivalent to "rosbag info"

bag.write("/my/topic", std_msgs.msg.Bool())

for topic, message, stamp in bag:
    print("[%s] %s:  %s" % (rosros.api.to_sec(stamp), topic, message))

ROS core functionality

Functionality for creating and operating a ROS node.

Objects returned are standard rospy / rclpy API objects, patched with additional members for a unified interface conforming to ROS1 API.

Name	Description	Arguments
	Startup, spin and shutdown
rosros.init_node	initializes ROS and creates ROS node (and returns Node object in ROS2)	name, args=None, namespace=None, anonymous=True, log_level=None, enable_rosout=True, multithreaded=True, reentrant=False
rosros.start_spin	sets ROS node spinning forever in a background thread
rosros.spin	spins ROS node forever
rosros.spin_once	waits until timeout in ROS1; executes one ROS operation or waits until timeout in ROS2	timeout=None
rosros.spin_until_future_complete	spins ROS until future complete or timeout reached or ROS shut down	future, timeout=None
rosros.ok	returns whether ROS has been initialized and is not shut down
rosros.on_shutdown	registers function to be called on shutdown	callback, *args, **kwargs
rosros.shutdown	shuts down live ROS node, if any	reason=None
	Parameters
rosros.init_params	sets all parameters on node from defaults dictionary, returns full parameters dictionary.	defaults=None, **defaultkws
	In ROS2, auto-declares unregistered parameters.
rosros.has_param	returns whether the parameter exists	name
rosros.get_param	returns parameter value from current ROS node	name, default=None, autoset=True
rosros.get_param_names	returns the names of all current ROS node parameters
rosros.get_params	returns the current ROS node parameters, by default as nested dictionary	nested=True
rosros.set_param	sets a parameter on the node.	name, value, descriptor=None
	In ROS2, parameter will be auto-declared if unknown so far.
rosros.delete_param	deletes parameter from the node	name
	Topics, services, timers and rates
rosros.create_publisher	returns a ROS publisher instance	topic, cls_or_typename, latch=False, queue_size=0, **qosargs
rosros.create_subscriber	returns a ROS subscriber instance	topic, cls_or_typename, callback, callback_args=None, queue_size=0, raw=False, **qosargs
rosros.create_service	returns a ROS service server instance, for providing a service	service, cls_or_typename, callback, **qosargs
rosros.create_client	returns a ROS service client instance, for invoking a service	service, cls_or_typename, **qosargs
rosros.create_timer	returns a ROS timer instance	period, callback, oneshot=False, immediate=False
rosros.create_rate	returns a ROS rate instance, for sleeping at a fixed rate	frequency
rosros.destroy_entity	closes the given publisher, subscriber, service client, service server, or timer instance	item
rosros.AnyMsg	rospy.AnyMsg in ROS1, stand-in class with equivalent functionality in ROS2
rosros.sleep	sleeps for the specified duration in ROS time	duration
rosros.wait_for_publisher	blocks until topic has at least one publisher	topic, timeout=None, cls_or_typename=None
rosros.wait_for_subscriber	blocks until topic has at least one subscriber	topic, timeout=None, cls_or_typename=None
rosros.wait_for_service	blocks until service is available	service, timeout=None, cls_or_typename=None
	ROS bags
rosros.Bag	ROS bag reader and writer;
	rosbag.Bag in ROS1 with some additional functionality;
	equivalent class in ROS2, using the ROS2 default SQLite format
	Information queries
rosros.get_namespace	returns ROS node namespace
rosros.get_node_name	returns ROS node full name with namespace
rosros.get_nodes	returns all ROS nodes, as [node full name, ]
rosros.get_topics	returns all available ROS topics, as [(topic name, [type name, ]), ]
rosros.get_services	returns all available ROS services, as [(service name, [type name, ]), ]
rosros.remap_name	returns the absolute remapped topic/service name if mapping exists	name, namespace=None
rosros.resolve_name	returns absolute remapped name, namespaced under current node if relative or private	name, namespace=None
	Miscellaneous
rosros.get_logger	returns logging.Logger for logging to ROS log handler;
	logger supports additional keywords __once__, __throttle__, __throttle_identical__
rosros.get_ros_version	returns ROS version information as a data dictionary
rosros.get_rostime	returns ROS time instance for current ROS clock time
rosros.register_init	informs rosros of ROS having been initialized outside of init_node().	node=None
	Giving node as argument is mandatory in ROS2.

Patches in ROS1

Additional functionality patched onto rospy classes for convenience:

• rospy.ServiceProxy.call_async(*args, **kwargs): makes service call in a background thread, returns concurrent.futures.Future-like response
• rospy.ServiceProxy.wait_for_service(timeout=None, timeout_sec=None): waits for service to become available, returns True, or False on timeout
• rospy.ServiceProxy.service_is_ready(): returns whether service is currently available
• rospy.Subscriber: callbacks are invoked with serialized message bytes if subscription was created with raw=True
• rosbag.Bag.get_message_definition(msg_or_type): returns ROS1 message type definition full text from bag
• rosbag.Bag.get_message_class(typename, typehash=None): returns ROS1 message class
• rosbag.Bag.get_message_type_hash(msg_or_type): returns ROS1 message type MD5 hash
• rosbag.Bag.get_topic_info(): returns topic and message type metainfo as {(topic, typename, typehash): count}
• rosbag.Bag.reindex_file(f): reindexes bag file on disk; makes a temporary copy in file directory

Patches in ROS2

The following classes are patched with full conformity to their equivalents in ROS:

• rclpy.client.Client
• rclpy.publisher.Publisher
• rclpy.service.Service
• rclpy.subscription.Subscription
• rclpy.duration.Duration
• rclpy.time.Time
• rclpy.timer.Rate
• rclpy.timer.Timer

E.g. durations support +-*/ arithmetic, and publisher / subscriber provide .md5sum for message type hash.

API helpers

Functionality for working with message types and data and metainfo. Can be used as stand-alone library functions without initializing rosros core.

Name	Description	Arguments
	Message types and instances
rosros.api.get_message_class	returns ROS message / service class object, like std_msgs.msg.Bool for "std_msgs/Bool"	msg_or_type
rosros.api.get_message_definition	returns ROS message or service request/response type definition text,	msg_or_type, full=True
	by default including message subtype definitions
rosros.api.get_message_fields	returns {field name: field type name} if ROS message or service request/response, else {}	val
rosros.api.get_message_header	returns message Header-attribute if any, else None	val
rosros.api.get_message_type	returns ROS message / service canonical type name, like "std_msgs/Header"	msg_or_cls
	or "*" for AnyMsg
rosros.api.get_message_type_hash	returns ROS message / service type MD5 hash	msg_or_type
rosros.api.get_message_value	returns message attribute value, with numeric arrays converted to lists	msg, name, default=...
rosros.api.is_ros_message	returns whether value is a ROS message or service request/response class or instance	val
	Message conversion
rosros.api.deserialize_message	returns ROS message or service request/response instantiated from serialized binary	raw, cls_or_typename
rosros.api.dict_to_message	returns ROS message populated from Python dictionary	dct, msg_or_type
rosros.api.message_to_dict	returns ROS message as nested Python dictionary;	msg, replace=None
	with optional replacements for certain values like {math.nan: None}
rosros.api.message_to_str	returns ROS message as an evaluatable string, e.g. "std_msgs.msg.UInt8(data=0)"	msg, indent=None
rosros.api.serialize_message	returns ROS message or service request/response as a serialized binary of bytes()	msg
	Service classes and definitions
rosros.api.get_service_definition	returns ROS service type definition text	srv_or_type
rosros.api.get_service_request_class	returns ROS service request class object	srv_or_type
rosros.api.get_service_response_class	returns ROS service response class object	srv_or_type
rosros.api.is_ros_service	returns whether value is a ROS service class object	val
	Time and duration
rosros.api.is_ros_time	returns whether value is a ROS time/duration	val
rosros.api.make_duration	returns a ROS duration	secs=0, nsecs=0
rosros.api.make_time	returns a ROS time	secs=0, nsecs=0
rosros.api.time_category	returns "time" or "duration" for time/duration type, else value	msg_or_type
rosros.api.time_message	returns ROS2 time/duration from rclpy as builtin_interfaces or vice versa,	val, to_message=True, clock_type=None
	or value if not convertible
rosros.api.to_datetime	returns value as datetime.datetime if value is ROS time/duration, else value	val
rosros.api.to_decimal	returns value as decimal.Decimal if value is ROS time/duration, else value	val
rosros.api.to_duration	returns value as ROS duration if convertible (int/float/time/datetime/decimal), else value	val
rosros.api.to_nsec	returns value in nanoseconds if value is ROS time/duration, else value	val
rosros.api.to_sec	returns value in seconds if value is ROS time/duration, else value	val
rosros.api.to_sec_nsec	returns value in (seconds, nanoseconds) if value is ROS time/duration, else value	val
rosros.api.to_time	returns value as ROS time if convertible (int/float/duration/datetime/decimal), else value	val
	Class and type names
rosros.api.canonical	returns "pkg/Type" for "pkg/subdir/Type"	typename
rosros.api.get_alias_type	returns ROS built-in type for alias like "char", if any; reverse of get_type_alias().	typename
	In ROS1, byte and char are aliases for int8 and uint8; in ROS2 the reverse.
rosros.api.get_type_alias	returns alias like "char" for ROS built-in type, if any; reverse of get_alias_type().	typename
	In ROS1, byte and char are aliases for int8 and uint8; in ROS2 the reverse.
rosros.api.make_full_typename	returns "pkg/msg/Type" or "pkg/srv/Type" for "pkg/Type"	typename, category="msg"
rosros.api.scalar	returns scalar type from ROS message data type, like "uint8" from uint8-array;	typename
	in ROS2, returns unbounded type, e.g. "string" from "string<=10[<=5]".
	Miscellaneous
rosros.api.format_param_name	returns parameter name with correct separator for ROS version, and leading sigils stripped	name
rosros.api.PARAM_SEPARATOR	separator char between ROS parameter namespace parts
rosros.api.ROS_BUILTIN_TYPES	list of ROS built-in numeric and string type names, like ["string", "uint8", ..]
rosros.api.ROS_NUMERIC_TYPES	list of ROS built-in numeric type names, like ["bool", "int8", ..]
rosros.api.ROS_STRING_TYPES	list of ROS built-in string type names
rosros.api.ROS_TIME_CLASSES	ROS time/duration types mapped to type names
rosros.api.ROS_TIME_TYPES	list of ROS built-in time/duration type names

Converting an existing package

Existing ROS1 package to ROS1/ROS2 package

rosros can be used as a (mostly) drop-in replacement for rospy to make a ROS1 package equally usable under ROS2 - if the code relies only on rospy, and does not go too deeply into using ROS1 specifics like rosgraph.

rospy imports can be replaced with rosros.rospify, e.g.

import threading
from rosros import rospify as rospy
from std_msgs.msg import String

rospy.init_node("talker", anonymous=True)
pub = rospy.Publisher("chatter", String, queue_size=10)
rate = rospy.Rate(10)  # 10hz
threading.Thread(target=rospy.spin).start()  # Concession for ROS2: spin is always needed
while not rospy.is_shutdown():
    hello_str = "hello world %s" % rospy.get_time()
    rospy.loginfo(hello_str)
    pub.publish(hello_str)
    rate.sleep()

In ROS1 it provides rospy, and in ROS2 it provides matching API classes and functions.

Main behavioral differences of rospify in ROS2 vs ROS1:

• Subscriber.get_num_connections() always returns 0, as ROS2 does not provide this information
• subscribing with AnyMsg needs the publisher existing
• parameter operations always apply to node parameters, as ROS2 has no global parameters
• functions registered in on_shutdown() are called after node shutdown, not before
• rosros.rospify.get_master() requires local node to be initialized, unlike rospy.get_master()
• rosros.rospify.SubscribeListener does nothing

Existing ROS2 package to ROS1/ROS2 package

rosros can also be used as a (mostly) drop-in replacement for rclpy to make a ROS2 package equally usable under ROS1 - if the code mainly relies on rclpy module and does not go deep into using ROS2 specifics like builtin_interfaces.

rclpy imports can be replaced with rosros.rclify, e.g.

from rosros import rclify as rclpy
from std_msgs.msg import String

class MinimalPublisher(rclpy.node.Node):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__("minimal_publisher")
        self.publisher_ = self.create_publisher(String, "chatter", 10)
        timer_period = 0.1  # seconds
        self.timer = self.create_timer(timer_period, self.timer_callback)
        self.i = 0
    def timer_callback(self):
        msg = String()
        msg.data = "Hello World: %d" % self.i
        self.publisher_.publish(msg)
        self.get_logger().info('Publishing: "%s"' % msg.data)
        self.i += 1

rclpy.init()
minimal_publisher = MinimalPublisher()
rclpy.spin(minimal_publisher)

In ROS2, rclify provides rclpy, and in ROS1 it provides matching API modules and classes and functions.

Covers all the parts of rclpy.node that are supportable in ROS1, focused on: creating nodes, publishing and subscribing topics, providing and invoking services, working with rates and timers.

Main behavioral differences of rclify in ROS1 vs ROS2:

• one single node as always in ROS1
• QoS profiles ignore all options except depth (taken as queue_size), and durability equaling TRANSIENT_LOCAL (taken as latch=True)
• no contexts, no executors, no waitables
• no callback groups, no guard conditions, no middleware events

Methods pertaining to unsupported functionality do nothing and return None. Unsupported arguments in methods are ignored.

Installation

Developed and tested under ROS1 Noetic and ROS2 Foxy, works in later ROS2 versions (tested up to ROS2 Jazzy).

Using pip

pip install rosros

This will make the rosros library available to Python packages.

Requires ROS Python packages (ROS1: rospy, roslib, rosbag, rosservice, genpy; ROS2: rclpy, rosidl_parser, rosidl_runtime_py, ament_index_python, builtin_interfaces).

Using catkin

In a ROS1 workspace, under the source directory:

git clone https://github.com/suurjaak/rosros.git
cd rosros
catkin build --this

This will make the rosros library available in the ROS1 workspace.

Using colcon

In a ROS2 workspace, at the workspace root:

git clone https://github.com/suurjaak/rosros.git src/rosros
colcon build --packages-select rosros

This will make the rosros library available in the ROS2 workspace.

Running tests

ROS1:

catkin test rosros

ROS2:

colcon test --packages-select rosros

To run ROS2 tests with full log output:

colcon test --packages-select rosros --event-handlers console_direct+ \
            --pytest-args "--capture=tee-sys"

Using pytest, either ROS1 or ROS2 (roscore needs to be running if ROS1):

cd rosros
pytest

Dependencies

• pyyaml (https://pypi.org/project/PyYAML)

ROS1:

• genpy
• rosbag
• roslib
• rospy
• rosservice

ROS2:

• ament_index_python
• builtin_interfaces
• rclpy
• rosidl_parser
• rosidl_runtime_py

ROS2 test dependencies:

• pytest (https://pypi.org/project/pytest)
• pytest-forked (https://pypi.org/project/pytest-forked)

For generating API documentation:

• doxypypy (https://pypi.org/project/doxypypy; needs latest master: pip install git+https://github.com/Feneric/doxypypy)

Attribution

This package includes partially copied and modified code from rclpy core library, released under the Apache-2.0 license. See doc/3rd-party licenses.txt for full details.

License

Copyright (c) 2022 by Erki Suurjaak. Released as free open source software under the BSD License, see LICENSE.md for full details.