This is a ROS 2 package for Boston Dynamics' Spot. The package contains all necessary topics, services and actions to teleoperate or navigate Spot. This package is derived from this ROS 1 package. This package currently corresponds to version 4.0.0 of the spot-sdk.
This package is tested for Ubuntu 22.04 and ROS 2 Humble, which can be installed following this guide.
In your ROS 2 workspace src directory, clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/bdaiinstitute/spot_ros2.gitand initialize and install the submodules:
cd spot_ros2
git submodule init
git submodule updateThen run the install script to install the necessary Boston Dynamics and ROS dependencies. The install script takes the optional argument --arm64; it otherwise defaults to an AMD64 install. Run the correct command based on your system:
cd <path to spot_ros2>
./install_spot_ros2.sh
or
./install_spot_ros2.sh --arm64From here, build and source the ROS 2 workspace:
cd <ros2 ws>
source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
colcon build --symlink-install --packages-ignore proto2ros_tests
source install/local_setup.bash
We suggest ignoring the proto2ros_tests package in the build as it is not necessary for running the driver. If you choose to build it, you will see a number of error messages from testing the failure paths.
The Spot driver contains all of the necessary topics, services, and actions for controlling Spot over ROS 2. To launch the driver, run:
ros2 launch spot_driver spot_driver.launch.py [config_file:=<path/to/config.yaml>] [spot_name:=<Robot Name>] [publish_point_clouds:=<True|False>] [launch_rviz:=<True|False>] [uncompress_images:=<True|False>] [publish_compressed_images:=<True|False>]
The Spot login data hostname, username and password can be specified either as ROS parameters or as environment variables. If using ROS parameters, see spot_driver/config/spot_ros_example.yaml for an example of what your file could look like. If using environment variables, define BOSDYN_CLIENT_USERNAME, BOSDYN_CLIENT_PASSWORD, and SPOT_IP.
Many simple robot commands can be called as services from the command line once the driver is running. For example:
ros2 service call /<Robot Name>/sit std_srvs/srv/Triggerros2 service call /<Robot Name>/stand std_srvs/srv/Triggerros2 service call /<Robot Name>/undock std_srvs/srv/Triggerros2 service call /<Robot Name>/power_off std_srvs/srv/Trigger
If your Spot has an arm, some additional helpful services are exposed:
ros2 service call /<Robot Name>/arm_stow std_srvs/srv/Triggerros2 service call /<Robot Name>/arm_unstow std_srvs/srv/Triggerros2 service call /<Robot Name>/arm_carry std_srvs/srv/Triggerros2 service call /<Robot Name>/open_gripper std_srvs/srv/Triggerros2 service call /<Robot Name>/close_gripper std_srvs/srv/Trigger
The full list of interfaces provided by the driver can be explored via ros2 topic list, ros2 service list, and ros2 action list. For more information about the custom message types used in this package, run ros2 interface show <interface_type>.
See spot_examples for some more complex examples of using the ROS 2 driver to control Spot, which typically use the action servers provided by the driver.
By default, the driver will publish RGB images as well as depth maps from the frontleft, frontright, left, right, and back cameras on Spot (plus hand if your Spot has an arm). If your Spot has greyscale cameras, you will need to set rgb_cameras: False in your configuration YAML file, or you will not recieve any image data.
By default, the driver does not publish point clouds. To enable this, launch the driver with publish_point_clouds:=True.
The driver can publish both compressed images (under /<Robot Name>/camera/<camera location>/compressed) and uncompressed images (under /<Robot Name>/camera/<camera location>/image). By default, it will only publish the uncompressed images. You can turn (un)compressed images on/off by launching the driver with the flags uncompress_images:=<True|False> and publish_compressed_images:=<True|False>.
The driver also has the option to publish a stitched image created from Spot's front left and front right cameras (similar to what is seen on the tablet). If you wish to enable this, launch the driver with stitch_front_images:=True, and the image will be published under /<Robot Name>/camera/frontmiddle_virtual/image. In order to receive meaningful stitched images, you will have to specify the parameters virtual_camera_intrinsics, virtual_camera_projection_plane, virtual_camera_plane_distance, and stitched_image_row_padding (see spot_driver/config/spot_ros_example.yaml for some default values).
Due to known issues with the Spot CAM, it is disabled by default. To enable publishing and usage over the driver, add the following command in your configuration YAML file:
initialize_spot_cam: True
The Spot CAM payload has known issues with the SSL certification process in https. If you get the following errors:
non-existing PPS 0 referenced
decode_slice_header error
no frame!
Then you want to log into the Spot CAM over the browser. In your browser, type in:
https://<ip_address_of_spot>:<sdp_port>/h264.sdp.html
The default port for SDP is 31102 for the Spot CAM. Once inside, you will be prompted to log in using your username and password. Do so and the WebRTC frames should begin to properly stream.
spot_msgs are normally compiled as part of this repository. If you would prefer to install them as a debian package, follow the steps below:
wget -q -O /tmp/ros-humble-spot-msgs_0.0.0-0jammy_amd64.deb https://github.com/bdaiinstitute/spot_ros2/releases/download/spot_msgs-v0.0-0/ros-humble-spot-msgs_0.0.0-0jammy_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/ros-humble-spot-msgs_0.0.0-0jammy_amd64.deb
rm /tmp/ros-humble-spot-msgs_0.0.0-0jammy_amd64.debThe bosdyn_msgs package is installed as a debian package as part of the install_spot_ros2 script because it's very large. It can be checked out from source here and then built as a normal ROS 2 package if that is preferred (compilation takes about 15 minutes).
If you encounter problems when using this repository, feel free to open an issue or PR.
If you encounter ModuleNotFoundErrors with bosdyn packages upon running the driver, it is likely that the necessary Boston Dynamics API packages did not get installed with install_spot_ros2.sh. To check this, you can run the following command. Note that all versions should be 4.0.0.
$ pip list | grep bosdyn
bosdyn-api 4.0.0
bosdyn-api-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-auto-return-api-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-autowalk-api-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-choreography-client 4.0.0
bosdyn-choreography-protos 4.0.0
bosdyn-client 4.0.0
bosdyn-core 4.0.0
bosdyn-graph-nav-api-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-keepalive-api-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-log-status-api-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-metrics-logging-api-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-mission 4.0.0
bosdyn-mission-api-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-spot-api-msgs 4.0.0
bosdyn-spot-cam-api-msgs 4.0.0If these packages were not installed correctly on your system, you can try manually installing them following Boston Dynamics' guide.
MIT license - parts of the code developed specifically for ROS 2. BSD3 license - parts of the code derived from the Clearpath Robotics ROS 1 driver.
To contribute, install pre-commit via pip, run pre-commit install and then run pre-commit run --all-files to
verify that your code will pass inspection.
git clone https://github.com/bdaiinstitute/spot_ros2.git
cd spot_ros2
pip3 install pre-commit
pre-commit install
pre-commit run --all-filesNow whenever you commit code to this repository, it will be checked against our pre-commit hooks. You can also run
git commit --no-verify if you wish to commit without checking against the hooks.
This project is a collaboration between the Mobile Autonomous Systems & Cognitive Robotics Institute (MASKOR) at FH Aachen and the Boston Dynamics AI Institute.
MASKOR contributors:
- Maximillian Kirsch
- Shubham Pawar
- Christoph Gollok
- Stefan Schiffer
- Alexander Ferrein
Boston Dynamics AI Institute contributors:
- Jenny Barry
- Daniel Gonzalez
- Tao Pang
- David Surovik
- Jiuguang Wang
- David Watkins
Linköping University contributors:
- Tommy Persson