ROSbot XL - Software

Detailed information about content of rosbot package for ROS2.

Control

Gamepad

After running the ROSbot XL Manipulation Package, you should be able to control the manipulator. The easiest way to move the manipulator is to connect a gamepad and steer the robot. The graphic below shows how to steer the manipulator using a gamepad.

Drive controls are defined in rosbot_joy/config/config.yaml and published to manual/cmd_vel, the highest-priority input of velocity command arbitration — a held gamepad always overrides navigation. The manipulator gamepad mappings (XL only) are hardcoded in rosbot_moveit/src/joy2servo.cpp.

ROS API

Namespace policy

Everything below is published under /<namespace>/ when the namespace launch arg (or ROBOT_NAMESPACE env) is set. Intentional globals:

• /tf, /tf_static — bridged via tf_namespace_bridge.
• /parameter_events, /rosout — ROS 2 infra.
• /clock — sim only.
• /asset_providers — husarion_asset_server's AssetProviderInfo announcement; global by design so a router/bridge discovers every provider across every robot namespace on one topic.

Hard-coded, no runtime opt-out. HW uses push_ros_namespace, sim uses URDF <remapping> for the controller_manager surface — see Namespacing and multirobot. Enforced by test_namespace_isolation.py.

Velocity command arbitration

Several sources may want to drive the robot at once — a gamepad, a navigation stack, an ad-hoc script. twist_mux_controller picks one by priority and feeds it into the drive controller through ros2_control reference interfaces, so the arbitration happens inside the 100 Hz control loop rather than over topics.

Input	Topic	Priority	Typical publisher
manual	manual/cmd_vel	100	gamepad (rosbot_joy), keyboard teleop
autonomous	autonomous/cmd_vel	10	nav2
unknown	cmd_vel	1	anything else

The highest-priority input that published within the last 0.2 s wins; once it goes quiet control falls through to the next one down. So holding the gamepad overrides navigation, and releasing it hands control back automatically — no service call, no mode switch.

twist_mux_controller/source reports which input is currently in charge. On ROSbot XL the LED strip follows it: autonomous shows the navigation animation, manual / unknown / not_published show ready. Set follow_cmd_vel_source: false in rosbot_utils/config/<robot_model>/config.yaml to drive the strip by hand instead — that file also carries led_count, navigation_animation and ready_animation, and is picked up from config_dir when one is set.

Because the mux claims the drive controller's reference interfaces, the drive controller runs in chained mode and no longer subscribes to its own ~/cmd_vel. Publishing to cmd_vel still works — it is simply the lowest-priority input now. Priorities and timeouts live in rosbot_controller/config/<model>/controllers.yaml.

Available Nodes

🤖	🖥️	NODE	DESCRIPTION
✅	✅	controller_manager	Controller Manager performs two main functions. First, it manages controllers and their required interfaces, handling tasks like loading, activating, deactivating, and unloading. Second, it interacts with hardware components, ensuring access to their interfaces. controller_manager/controller_manager
✅	✅	differential_drive_controller / mecanum_drive_controller	The controller managing a mobile robot with a differential or omni drive (mecanum wheels). Converts speed commands for the robot body to wheel commands for the base. It also calculates odometry based on hardware feedback and shares it.DiffDriveController or MecanumDriveController diff_drive_controller/diff_drive_controller
✅	✅	ekf_node	Used to fuse wheel odometry and IMU data. Parameters are defined in rosbot_localization/config/config.yaml robot_localization/ekf_node
❌	✅	/gz_bridge	Transmits Gazebo simulation data to the ROS layer ros_gz_bridge/parameter_bridge
❌	✅	gz_ros_control	Responsible for integrating the ros2_control controller architecture with the Gazebo simulator. gz_ros2_control/gz_ros2_control
✅	❌	husarion_asset_server	Serves this robot's package:// meshes/URDF resources over a get_asset service; auto-derives owned packages from the co-located robot_description. Toggle with the asset_server launch arg. husarion_asset_server/asset_server
✅	✅	imu_broadcaster	The broadcaster to publish readings of IMU sensors imu_sensor_broadcaster/imu_sensor_broadcaster
✅	❌	imu_sensor_node	The node responsible for subscriptions to IMU data from the hardware rosbot_hardware_interfaces/rosbot_imu_sensor
✅	✅	joint_state_broadcaster	The broadcaster reads all state interfaces and reports them on specific topics joint_state_broadcaster/joint_state_broadcaster
✅	✅	robot_state_publisher	Uses the URDF specified by the parameter robot*description and the joint positions from the topic joint*states to calculate the forward kinematics of the robot and publish the results using tf robot_state_publisher/robot_state_publisher
✅	❌	rosbot_system_node	The node communicating with the hardware responsible for receiving and sending data related to engine control rosbot_hardware_interfaces/rosbot_system
❌	✅	rosbot_gz_bridge	Transmits data about the robot between the Gazebo simulator and ROS. ros_gz_bridge/parameter_bridge
✅	❌	rosbot_mcu	Microcontroller unit (MCU) communication node. Default: rosbot_mavlink_bridge (MAVLink). With backend:=microros it is replaced by the micro_ros_agent node, which speaks XRCE-DDS to the MCU instead. [rosbot_mavlink_bridge/rosbot_mavlink_bridge]
✅	✅	twist_mux_controller	Chainable controller arbitrating velocity commands from several sources by priority and forwarding the winner straight into the drive controller's reference interfaces — the arbitration runs inside the 100 Hz control loop, not over topics. See Velocity command arbitration. [twist_mux_controller/TwistMuxController]

Available Topics

🤖	🖥️	TOPIC	DESCRIPTION
✅	✅	autonomous/cmd_vel	Velocity commands from an autonomy stack (nav2). Priority 10 — yields to manual/cmd_vel. geometry_msgs/TwistStamped
✅	✅	cmd_vel	Velocity commands from an unclassified source. Priority 1 — the lowest, kept for backwards compatibility. geometry_msgs/TwistStamped
✅	✅	diagnostics	Contains diagnostic information about the robot's systems. diagnostic_msgs/DiagnosticArray
✅	✅	dynamic_joint_states	Publishes information about the dynamic state of joints. control_msgs/DynamicJointState
✅	✅	imu/data	Broadcasts IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) data. sensor_msgs/Imu
✅	✅	joint_states	Publishes information about the state of robot joints. On hardware the effort field carries wheel motor torque (measured on ROSbot XL rev 1.2, back-EMF estimate otherwise); in simulation effort is NaN. sensor_msgs/JointState
✅	✅	joy	Publishes joystick input data. sensor_msgs/Joy
✅	✅	manual/cmd_vel	Velocity commands from a human operator (gamepad, keyboard teleop). Priority 100 — the highest, so it overrides autonomy. geometry_msgs/TwistStamped
✅	✅	odometry/filtered	Publishes filtered odometry data. nav_msgs/Odometry
✅	✅	odometry/wheels	Provides odometry data from the base controller of the ROSbot XL. nav_msgs/Odometry
✅	✅	robot_description	Publishes the robot's description. std_msgs/String
✅	✅	scan	Publishes raw laser scan data. sensor_msgs/LaserScan
✅	✅	set_pose	Changes the robot's odometry/filtered pose. geometry_msgs/PoseWithCovarianceStamped
✅	✅	tf	Publishes transformations between coordinate frames over time. tf2_msgs/TFMessage
✅	✅	tf_static	Publishes static transformations between coordinate frames. tf2_msgs/TFMessage
✅	✅	twist_mux_controller/source	Name of the input currently driving the robot: manual, autonomous, unknown or not_published. Latched (transient_local), republished only on handover. On ROSbot XL animation_publisher follows it, so the LED strip shows who is driving. std_msgs/String

There are also additional topics related with the ROSbot firmware. For more information about them, please refer to the ROSbot Firmware documentation.

Available Services

🤖	🖥️	SERVICE	DESCRIPTION
✅	❌	husarion_asset_server/get_asset	Resolves a package://PKG/REL URI to bytes (ranged fetch) for the description packages husarion_asset_server owns. husarion_asset_msgs/srv/GetAsset
✅	❌	led_strip/enable	ROSbot XL only. Enables (data: true) or disables (data: false) the LED strip animation. While disabled the animation_publisher node neither computes nor publishes the led_strip image, and the firmware idle animation shows instead. The current_animation parameter is remembered across the gate, so enabling resumes whatever was selected. std_srvs/SetBool

Packages

One-line purpose per package; full detail (launch flows, internals) in ARCHITECTURE.md.

Package	Description
rosbot	Meta-package — pins sibling repos via *.repos, no code.
rosbot_bringup	Hardware entry point: per-model bringup + MCU backend (MAVLink default / micro-ROS). Local-only.
rosbot_controller	ros2_control setup — spawns drive, IMU and joint-state controllers (plus the manipulator on XL).
rosbot_description	URDF/xacro for hardware and simulation, robot configurations, robot_state_publisher.
rosbot_gazebo	Gazebo simulation launch and robot spawning. Local-only.
rosbot_hardware_interfaces	C++ ros2_control plugins (RosbotSystem, RosbotImuSensor) — the firmware ABI.
rosbot_joy	Joystick teleop for driving (joy_node + teleop_twist_joy).
rosbot_localization	EKF fusing wheel odometry + IMU → odometry/filtered.
rosbot_moveit	MoveIt manipulation for the OpenMANIPULATOR-X (XL only) — see MANIPULATOR.md.
rosbot_utils	Utilities: firmware flashing, robot configuration, udev rules, battery alert, LED strip.