rqt_network

This is a utility to visualize the state of an entire ROS 2 network in a graphical way. This utility will show all of the nodes in a graph, all of the topics, services, and actions that connect them, as well as some additional metadata about them.

# Install

 mkdir -p viz_ws/src
 cd viz_ws/src
 git clone https://github.com/ros2/ros_network_viz.git
 cd ..
 rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --default-yes
 colcon build --symlink-install
 . install/setup.bash
 ros2 run ros_network_viz ros_network_viz
 

Features

• Show a legend/help for describing what everything does
• Allow zooming in or out on the entire scene
• Have some kind of side panel to show warnings, errors, incompatible QoS, etc.

Nodes

• Show all nodes in a ROS 2 graph (including those with no topics or services)
• Automatically update the graph as nodes come and go
• Have an option to “pause” automatic graph updates
• Hide hidden nodes by default (with option to turn on)
• Hide rqt_network node by default (with option to turn on)
• Show all parameters and initial parameter values on all nodes
• Update parameters as they change on every node (via /parameter_events)
• Support parameter updates on nodes that don’t have /parameter_events
• Have an automatic layout of nodes that makes sense
• Make the nodes draggable so the user can rearrange the layout
• Show whether a node is a regular Node
• Show whether a node is a LifecycleNode
• Show what Lifecycle state a node is in
• Update Lifecycle states for a node as they change (via /transition_event)
• Support lifecycle updates on nodes that don’t have /transition_events
• Show if a node is a ComponentNode
• Show the nodes that are inside of a ComponentNode
• Have the ability to select one or more nodes and hide them

Topics

• Show all of the topics that a node publishes
• Show all of the topics that a node subscribes to
• Draw a line between the published and subscribed topics in the network
• Hide default topics like /parameter_events, /rosout by default (with option to turn on)
• Show the type for each topic
• Show the Quality-of-Service settings for each topic
• Show the rate (hz) at which a topic is publishing data
• Show the bandwidth that a topic is using
• Have the ability to hide one or more topics on a node
• Gracefully handle topics with unknown topic types
• Show the actual data flowing over a topic

Services

• Show all of the services that a node provides
• Show all of the services that a node is a client for
• Draw a line between the clients and services in the network
• Hide default services like /describe_parameters, /get_parameter_types, /get_parameters, /list_parameters, /set_parameters, /set_parameters_atomically by default (with option to turn on)
• Show the type for each service
• Show the Quality-of-Service settings for each service (does this even make sense for a service?)
• Have the ability to hide one or more services on a node
• Gracefully handle services with unknown topic types

Actions

• Show all of the actions that a node provides
• Show all of the actions that a node is a client for
• Draw a line between the action clients and action services in the network
• Show the type for each action
• Show the Quality-of-Service settings for each action (does this even make sense for an action?)
• Have the ability to hide one or more actions on a node
• Gracefully handle actions with unknown topic types