RosModelDescription.md

HOW TO DESCRIBE ROS NODES USING THE LANGUAGE

Component models have two types of extensions, either .ros1 for ROS version 1 packages and .ros2 for ROS 2 packages. In both cases the language allows to describe package that contains ROS nodes and their interfaces. To create a new model, you can easily just create a new file with the correct extension, the RosTooling environment will automatically recognize it and make use of its related features for the textual editor.

ROS (1)

In ros1 the grammar is as follows:

my_awesome_pkg: #Name of the package
  **fromGitRepo: ** "http://github.com/MyAccount/RepoName:BranchName" # Optional, Git reopsitory path that contains the source code
  **artifacts:**
    awesome: # Name of the artifact (as it is named in the CMakeLists)
      **node:** awesome_node # Name of the node
      **publishers:** # (Optional) List of publishers 
        awesome_pub:
          **type:** "std_msgs/msg/Bool"
      **subscribers:** # (Optional) List of subscribers 
        awesome_sub:
          **type:** "std_msgs/msg/Bool"
      **serviceclients:** # (Optional) List of service clients 
        awesome_client:
          **type:** "std_srvs/srv/Empty"
      **serviceservers:** # (Optional) List of service servers 
        awesome_server:
          **type:** "std_srvs/srv/Empty"
      **actionclients:** # (Optional) List of action clients 
        awesome_action:
          **type:** "control_msgs/action/JointTrajectory"
      **actionservers:** # (Optional) List of action servers 
        awesome_action:
          **type:** "control_msgs/action/JointTrajectory"
      **parameters:** # (Optional) List of parameters
        awesome_param:
          **type:** String
          **default:** "Hello"

The format is based on YAML. All the words marked in the template with '**' are keywords that compose the model, they can't be modified.

See the following model example for the known teleop ROS package:

teleop:
  artifacts:
    teleop_twist_joy_node:
      node: teleop_twist_joy_node
      publishers:
        cmd_vel:
          type: "geometry_msgs/msg/Twist"
      subscribers:
        joy:
          type:"sensor_msgs/msg/Joy" 

ROS 2

The ros2 grammar is as follows:

my_awesome_pkg:
  **fromGitRepo: ** "http://github.com/MyAccount/RepoName:BranchName"
  **artifacts:**
    awesome:
      **node:** awesome_node
      **publishers:**
        awesome_pub:
          **type:** "std_msgs/msg/Bool"
          **qos:** 
            **depth:** 10
            **durability:** volatile
            **history:** keep_all
            **profile:** default_qos
            **reliability:** best_effort 
      **subscribers:**
        awesome_sub:
          **type:** "std_msgs/msg/Bool"
          **qos:** 
            **depth:** 10
            **durability:** transient_local
            **history:** keep_last
            **profile:** sensor_qos
            **reliability:** reliable 
      **serviceclients:**
        awesome_client:
          **type:** "std_srvs/srv/Empty"
          **qos:** 
            **depth:** 10
            **durability:** volatile
            **history:** keep_all
            **profile:** services_qos
            **reliability:** best_effort 
      **serviceservers:**
        awesome_server:
          **type:** "std_srvs/srv/Empty"
          **qos:** 
            **depth:** 10
            **durability:** volatile
            **history:** keep_all
            **profile:** services_qos
            **reliability:** best_effort 
      **actionclients:**
        awesome_action:
          **type:** "control_msgs/action/JointTrajectory"
          **qos:** 
            **depth:** 10
            **durability:** volatile
            **history:** keep_all
            **profile:** default_qos
            **reliability:** best_effort 
      **actionservers:**
        awesome_action:
          **type:** "control_msgs/action/JointTrajectory"
          **qos:** 
            **depth:** 10
            **durability:** volatile
            **history:** keep_all
            **profile:** default_qos
            **reliability:** best_effort 
      **parameters:**
        awesome_param:
          **type:** String
          **default:** "Hello"
          **qos:** 
            **depth:** 10
            **durability:** volatile
            **history:** keep_all
            **profile:** parameter_qos
            **reliability:** best_effort 

The only remarkable difference with the ROS 1 model is that the quality of service can be defined for all the interfaces. The quality of service attributes are optional and they allow the following options:

• depth: it must be an integer.
• durability: volatile / transient_local
• history: keep_all / keep_last
• profile: default_qos / sensor_qos / services_qos/ parameter_qos
• reliability: best_effort / reliable

The type of supported parameters are:

• Boolean
• Double
• String
• Integer
• Base64
• List [Type, Type]
• Array [Type]
• Struct [Name Type, Name Type]

For more details about parameters, please check the site about the parameters definition.

See the following example for the arucos_ros driver:

aruco_ros:
  fromGitRepo: "https://github.com/pal-robotics/aruco_ros.git:humble-devel"
  artifacts:
    marker_publisher:
      node: marker_publisher
      subscribers:
        image_raw:
          type: "sensor_msgs/msg/Image"
      publishers:
        debug:
          type: "sensor_msgs/msg/Image"
        markers:
          type: "aruco_msgs/msg/MarkerArray"
        markers_list:
          type: "std_msgs/msg/UInt32MultiArray"
        result:
          type: "sensor_msgs/msg/Image"
      parameters:
        camera_frame:
          type: String
        image_is_rectified:
          type: Boolean
        marker_size:
          type: Double
        reference_frame:
          type: String
        raw_image_topic:
          type: String
        use_camera_info:
          type: Boolean
        use_sim_time:
          type: Boolean
        camera_info_topic:
          type: String

Textual model editor

The textual editor contains a checker embedded, for example:

It incorporates also the auto-complete function. This is available by pressing Ctrl + the space bar:

In the tutorials you will be guided to try all of these features.