kvnptl / rosbag_recorder

rosbag_recorder

This repository started as a subtree from mas_common_robotics.

This package contains a ROS node which starts and stops a rosbag record process based on events published on a topic. This allows you to start/stop recording data from another node or script, which is useful for collecting datasets where you want to trigger the recording based on some event produced by the robot.

Usage

1. Set up a yaml file with a list of the topics you want to record. See here for an example.
2. Create a launch file similar to this with the appropriate parameters and arguments.
3. Launch the node; for example roslaunch rosbag_recorder rosbag_recorder.launch.
4. When you want to start recording, publish a std_msgs/String message with the data e_start on the topic /rosbag_recorder/event_in; for example rostopic pub -1 /rosbag_recorder/event_in std_msgs/String e_start
5. Listen to the topic /rosbag_recorder/event_out for a std_msgs/String message. If you receive e_started, this means the recording started successfully, and if you receive e_failed, it means the recording did not start.
6. Listen to the topic /rosbag_recorder/filename for the filename of the recorded rosbag file

Notes

• multiple instances can be started, but make sure to change the topic remappings and prefix in the launch file as required
• the format for the file name is as follows: prefix_YYYY_MM_DD_HH-mm-ss.bag
• if you want to record a large number of topics, there might be a delay between when the e_start event is received and when the recording actually starts; change the ~timeout parameter as required
• additional rosbag record arguments can be specified as a string with the parameter ~rosbag_arguments in the launch file