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

Any contribution that you make to this repository will be under the Apache 2 License, as dictated by that license:

5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise,
   any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work
   by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of
   this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
   Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify
   the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed
   with Licensor regarding such Contributions.

Contributors must sign-off each commit by adding a Signed-off-by: ... line to commit messages to certify that they have the right to submit the code they are contributing to the project according to the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO).