PickNikRobotics / ROStoROS2

A living documentation of automate-able and manual steps for porting ROS packages to ROS2

ROS to ROS2 Porting Guide

Fully Automatable Transforms

• Changing msg, srv, and action includes in C++ files

  • ROS: #include <std_msgs/ColorRGBA.h>
  • ROS2: #include <std_msgs/msg/color_rgba.hpp>
  • Example Script: todo

• Changing msg, srv, and action namespacing in C++ files

  • ROS: geometry_msgs::Pose
  • ROS2: geometry_msgs::msg::Pose
  • Example Script: todo

• Changing the logging

  • A first pass of this can be done automatically, but it is better to use the node's logger when possible
  • Example Script: todo

• package.xml changes

  • Changing from format 1->3 and 2->3

    • ROS:

      • <package>
      • <package format="1">
      • <package format="2">

    • ROS2:

      • <package format="3">

    • Note: Technically, you can still use version 2 unless you are generating custom msgs
    • Example Script: todo

  • Changing buildtool_depend to ament_cmake

    • ROS: <buildtool_depend>catkin</buildtool_depend>
    • ROS2: <buildtool_depend>ament_cmake</buildtool_depend>
    • Example Script: todo

  • Adding <member_of_group>rosidl_interface_packages</member_of_group> to any package that creates custom msgs, srvs or actions

    • Example Script: todo

  • Changing run_depend to exec_depend

    • Example Script: todo

  • Adding <build_type>ament_cmake</build_type> inside <export> ... </export> tags

    • Example Script: todo

  • Changing message_runtime to rosidl_default_runtime

    • Example Script: todo

  • Changing message_generation to rosidl_default_generators

    • Example Script: todo

• CMakeLists.txt changes

  • Change msg file generation:

    • Transform 1:

      • ROS: add_message_files( .... FILES
      • ROS2: rosidl_generate_interfacesrosidl_generate_interfaces(${PROJECT_NAME}

    • Transform 2:

      • ROS: <msg_name>.msg
      • ROS2: "msg/<msg_name>.msg"

  • Change srv file generation:

    • Transform 1:

      • ROS: add_service_files( .... FILES
      • ROS2: rosidl_generate_interface(${PROJECT_NAME}

    • Transform 2:

      • ROS: <srv_name>.srv
      • ROS2: "srv/<srv_name>.srv"

  • Change action file generation:

    • Transform 1:

      • ROS: add_action_files( .... FILES
      • ROS2: rosidl_generate_interface(${PROJECT_NAME}

    • Transform 2:

      • ROS: <action_name>.action
      • ROS2: "action/<srv_name>.action"
      • NOTE: You will have to manually move DEPENDENCIES from generate_messages( to within the rosidl_generate_interface command

More Involved Transforms

• Create ros1_bridge mapping rules
• Transforming publishers, subscribers, servers and clients
• Tranforming node handles to nodes
• Changing plugin registering and loading. (See RViz2 plugin development doc)
• Transforming nodelets to nodes with composition
• Executors and Node strategy
• Catkin to Ament (CMakeListst.txt)