ROS 2 Driver for Generic Linux Joysticks

The joy_linux package contains joy_linux_node, a node that interfaces a generic Linux joystick to ROS. This is a lightweight, Linux-only node with no external dependencies. If you are on an embedded type Linux system and need a joystick driver, this driver may be for you. For all other use cases, the more modern, cross-platform, and supported “joy_node” should be used instead.

Supported Hardware

This node should work with any joystick that is supported by Linux.

Published Topics

• joy (sensor_msgs/msg/Joy): outputs the joystick state.

Device Selection

There are two parameters controlling which device should be used:

• ~dev (string, default: “/dev/input/js0”)
• ~dev_name (string, default: “” (empty = disabled))

If ~dev_name is empty, ~dev defines the Linux joystick device from which to read joystick events.

If ~dev_name is defined, the node enumerates all available joysticks, i.e. /dev/input/js*. The first joystick matching ~dev_name is opened. If no joystick matches the desired device name, the device specified by ~dev is used as a fallback.

To get a list of the names of all connected joysticks, an invalid ~dev_name can be specified. For example:

ros2 run joy_linux joy_linux_node --ros-args -p dev_name:="*"

The output might look like this:

[ INFO]: Found joystick: ST LIS3LV02DL Accelerometer (/dev/input/js1).
[ INFO]: Found joystick: Microsoft X-Box 360 pad (/dev/input/js0).
[ERROR]: Couldn't find a joystick with name *. Falling back to default device.

Then the node can be started with the device name given in the list. For example:

ros2 run joy_linux joy_linux_node --ros-args -p dev_name:="Microsoft X-Box 360 pad"

Advanced Parameters

• ~deadzone (double, default: 0.05)
  • Amount by which the joystick has to move before it is considered to be off-center. This parameter is specified relative to an axis normalized between -1 and 1. Thus, 0.1 means that the joystick has to move 10% of the way to the edge of an axis’s range before that axis will output a non-zero value. Linux does its own deadzone processing, so in many cases this value can be set to zero.
• ~autorepeat_rate (double, default: 0.0 (disabled))
  • Rate in Hz at which a joystick that has a non-changing state will resend the previously sent message.
• ~coalesce_interval (double, default: 0.001)
  • Axis events that are received within coalesce_interval (seconds) of each other are sent out in a single ROS message. Since the kernel sends each axis motion as a separate event, coalescing greatly reduces the rate at which messages are sent. This option can also be used to limit the rate of outgoing messages. Button events are always sent out immediately to avoid missing button presses.

Further Information

For further information have a look at the Wiki page.

Changelog for package joy

3.3.0 (2023-10-31)

3.2.0 (2023-10-10)

• Remove the last use of ament_target_dependencies. (#264)
• Contributors: Chris Lalancette

3.1.0 (2022-01-28)

• Style fixes for newer cpplint.
• Contributors: Chris Lalancette

3.0.1 (2022-01-28)

3.0.0 (2021-03-12)

• Update joy_linux_node.cpp (#189)
• Reenable diagnostics (#181)
• Contributors: Vitaliy Bondar, aaronaaronson98

2.4.1 (2020-05-13)

• Small fixes for uncrustify on Foxy. (#171)
• Contributors: Chris Lalancette

2.4.0 (2020-05-12)

• Cross platform joystick support for ROS 2 (#157)
• Contributors: Chris Lalancette

1.13.0 (2019-06-24)

• Merge pull request #120 from furushchev/remap add joy_remap and its sample
• Merge pull request #128 from ros-drivers/fix/tab_errors Cleaning up Python indentation.
• Merge pull request #111 from matt-attack/indigo-devel Add Basic Force Feedback Support
• Merge pull request #126 from clalancette/minor-formatting
• Put brackets around ROS_* macros. In some circumstances they may be defined to empty, so we need to have brackets to ensure that they are syntactically valid. Signed-off-by: Chris Lalancette <<clalancette@openrobotics.org>>
• Merge pull request #122 from lbucklandAS/fix-publish-timestamp Add timestamp to all joy messages
• Change error messages and set ps3 as default controller
• Better handle device loss Allow for loss and redetection of device with force feedback
• Add basic force feedback over usb Addresses #89
• Contributors: Chris Lalancette, Furushchev, Joshua Whitley, Lucas Buckland, Matthew, Matthew Bries

1.12.0 (2018-06-11)

• Update timestamp when using autorepeat_rate
• Added dev_name parameter to select joystick by name
• Added Readme for joy package with description of new device name parameter
• Fixed numerous outstanding PRs.
• Added sticky buttons
• Changed package xml to format 2
• Fixed issue when the joystick data did not got send until changed.
• Changed messaging to better reflect what the script is doing
• Contributors: Dino Hüllmann, Jonathan Bohren, Joshua Whitley, Miklos Marton, Naoki Mizuno, jprod123, psimona

1.11.0 (2017-02-10)

• fixed joy/Cmakelists for osx
• Update dependencies to remove warnings
• Contributors: Marynel Vazquez, Mark D Horn

1.10.1 (2015-05-24)

• Remove stray architechture_independent flags
• Contributors: Jonathan Bohren, Scott K Logan

1.10.0 (2014-06-26)

• First indigo release