koonpeng / rclnodejs

Node.js version of ROS 2.0 client

rclnodejs - ROS2 Client Library for JavaScript

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rclnodejs is a Node.js client library for the Robot Operating System (ROS 2). It provides a JavaScript API and TypeScript declarations for ROS 2 programming.

Here's an example for how to create a ROS 2 node that publishes a string message in a few lines of JavaScript.

const rclnodejs = require('rclnodejs');
rclnodejs.init().then(() => {
  const node = new rclnodejs.Node('publisher_example_node');
  const publisher = node.createPublisher('std_msgs/msg/String', 'topic');
  publisher.publish(`Hello ROS 2 from rclnodejs`);
  node.spin();
});

Documentation

• Installation
• API Documentation
• Using TypeScript
• Examples
• FAQ and Known Issues
• Building from Scratch
• Contributing

Installation

Prerequisites

Before installing rclnodejs please ensure the following softare is installed and configured on your systemd:

• Nodejs version between 8.12 - 12.x.

• ROS 2 SDK for details. DON'T FORGET TO SOURCE THE ROS 2 SETUP FILE

Installing rclnodejs

Install the rclnodejs version that is compatible with your version of ROS 2 (see table below).

For the most current version of rclnodejs run:

npm i rclnodejs

To install a specific version of rclnodejs use:

npm i rclnodejs@x.y.z

RCLNODEJS Version	Compatible ROS 2 Release
0.18.0 (current) (API)	Foxy Fitzroy / Eloquent Elusor
0.10.3	Dashing Diademata - Patch 4

• Note: to install rclnodejs from GitHub: add "rclnodejs":"RobotWebTools/rclnodejs#<branch>" to your package.json depdendency section.

API Documentation

API documentation is generated by jsdoc and can be viewed in the docs/ folder or on-line. To create a local copy of the documentation run npm run docs.

Using TypeScript

rclnodejs API can be used in TypeScript projects. You can find the TypeScript declaration files (*.d.ts) in the types/ folder.

Your project tsconfig.json file should include the following compiler options:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "commonjs",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "target": "es6"
    // your additional options here
  }
}

Here's a short rclnodejs TypeScript example:

import * as rclnodejs from 'rclnodejs';
rclnodejs.init().then(() => {
  const node = new rclnodejs.Node('publisher_example_node');
  const publisher = node.createPublisher('std_msgs/msg/String', 'topic');
  publisher.publish(`Hello ROS 2 from rclnodejs`);
  node.spin();
});

The benefits of using TypeScript become evident when working with more complex use-cases. The ROS 2 messages in your environment are defined in the types/interfaces.d.ts module. This module is updated as part of the generate-ros-messages process. Here's a trivial example of working with a String msg.

const msg: rclnodejs.std_msgs.msg.String = {
  data: 'hello ROS2 from rclnodejs',
};

Contributing

Please make sure to read the Contributing Guide before making a pull request.

Thank you to all the people who already contributed to rclnodejs!

License

This project abides by the Apache License 2.0.