goroslib
goroslib is a library in pure Go that allows to build clients (nodes) for the Robot Operating System (ROS).
The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a project that provides a specification to make multiple programs communicate with each other over time, exchanging structured data with topics, services, actions and parameters. It was conceived to link sensors, algorithms and actuators in unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and robots, but it is not bounded to the robot world and can be used anywhere there's the need of building streams of data (for example in video processing).
Features:
- publish and subscribe to topics with TCP or UDP
- provide and call services
- provide and call actions
- provide and call simple actions
- get and set parameters
- support namespaces and relative topics
- support IPv6 (stateful addresses only)
- support time API
- compilation of
.msgfiles is not necessary, message definitions are extracted from code - compile or cross-compile for all Go supported OSs (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X) and architectures
- examples provided for every feature, comprehensive test suite, continuous integration
Table of contents
Installation
-
Install Go ≥ 1.15.
-
Create an empty folder, open a terminal in it and initialize the Go modules system:
go mod init main -
Download one of the example files and place it in the folder:
-
Compile and run (a ROS master must be already running in the background)
go run name-of-the-go-file.go
API Documentation
https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/aler9/goroslib#pkg-index
FAQs
Comparison with other libraries
goroslib vs official C++/Python libraries
The official project provides libraries to write nodes in C++ and Python, but they require the download of over 1GB of data and work only with a fixed buildchain. This library allows to write lightweight nodes that can be built with the standard Go compiler, do not need any runtime library and have a size of some megabytes. Another advantage lies in the possibility of compiling nodes for all the Golang supported operating systems (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, etc) and architectures.
goroslib vs rosgo
rosgo is currently unmaintained; furthermore, it requires compilation of .msg files, doesn't support UDP, doesn't support actions, doesn't support simulated clocks.
Full list of features
Current and missing features are described in the FEATURES document.
Use standard messages, services and actions
This library provides most of the standard messages, services and actions in the folder pkg/msgs:
| package | documentation | repository |
|---|---|---|
| ackermann_msgs | link | link |
| actionlib | link | link |
| actionlib_msgs | link | link |
| audio_common_msgs | link | link |
| control_msgs | link | link |
| diagnostic_msgs | link | link |
| geometry_msgs | link | link |
| geographic_msgs | link | link |
| mavros_msgs | link | link |
| nav_msgs | link | link |
| rosgraph_msgs | link | link |
| sensor_msgs | link | link |
| shape_msgs | link | link |
| sound_play | link | link |
| std_msgs | link | link |
| std_srvs | link | link |
| stereo_msgs | link | link |
| tf | link | link |
| tf2_msgs | link | link |
| trajectory_msgs | link | link |
| uuid_msgs | link | link |
| velodyne_msgs | link | link |
| vision_msgs | link | link |
| visualization_msgs | link | link |
Define custom messages, services and actions
To define custom messages, the standard ROS C++/Python libraries require .msg files in this format:
bool field1
int32 field2
This library doesn't require any .msg file, it is enough to write Go structures in this format:
import (
"github.com/aler9/goroslib/pkg/msgs"
)
type MessageName struct {
msg.Package `ros:"my_package"`
Field1 bool
Field2 int32
}
The type of a field can be one of the following:
-
one of the primitive field types:
boolint8uint8int16uint16int32uint32int64uint64float32float64stringtime.Timetime.Duration
-
another standard or custom message
The name of a field must be in CamelCase, and is converted to snake_case when interacting with C++/Python nodes. If this conversion is not possible, the tag rosname can be used to override the field name:
type MessageName struct {
msg.Package `ros:"my_package"`
Field bool `rosname:"FIELD"`
}
Services in this format:
uint32 input
---
uint32 output
Are equivalent to Go structures in this format:
type ServiceNameReq struct {
Input uint32
}
type ServiceNameRes struct {
Output uint32
}
type ServiceName struct {
msg.Package `ros:"my_package"`
ServiceNameReq
ServiceNameRes
}
Actions in this format:
uint32 goal
---
uint32 result
---
uint32 feedback
Are equivalent to Go structures in this format:
type ActionNameGoal struct {
Goal uint32
}
type ActionNameResult struct {
Result uint32
}
type ActionNameFeedback struct {
Feedback uint32
}
type ActionName struct {
msg.Package `ros:"my_package"`
ActionNameGoal
ActionNameResult
ActionNameFeedback
}
Import existing messages, services and actions
A command-line utility is provided to convert existing .msg files into their equivalent Go structures:
go get github.com/aler9/goroslib/cmd/msg-import
msg-import --rospackage=my_package mymessage.msg > mymessage.go
Another one is provided to convert existing .srv files into their equivalent Go structures:
go get github.com/aler9/goroslib/cmd/srv-import
srv-import --rospackage=my_package myservice.srv > myservice.go
Another one is provided to convert existing .action files into their equivalent Go structures:
go get github.com/aler9/goroslib/cmd/action-import
action-import --rospackage=my_package myaction.action > myaction.go
Compile a node for another operating system
To compile a node for another OS, it's enough to follow the standard Golang procedure to cross-compile, that consists in setting the GOOS and GOARCH environment variables according to the target machine. For instance, to build a node for Windows from another OS, run:
GOOS=windows GOARCH=amd64 go build -o node.exe name-of-source-file.go
Edit the library
If you want to hack the library and test the results, unit tests can be launched with:
make test
Links
ROS v1 Documentation
- Conventions
- APIs
- Protocols
Other Go libraries
Other non-Go libraries
- (v1, C++) https://github.com/ros/ros_comm/tree/noetic-devel/clients/roscpp/src/libros - https://docs.ros.org/noetic/api/roscpp/html/classros_1_1NodeHandle.html
- (v1, Python) https://docs.ros.org/noetic/api/rosnode/html/
- (v1, C) https://github.com/ros-industrial/cros
- (v1, TypeScript) https://github.com/foxglove/ros1
- (v2, misc) https://fkromer.github.io/awesome-ros2/
- (v2, TypeScript) https://github.com/foxglove/ros2
Conventions
