ROSbot 3 - ROS 2 API

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 (cmd_vel) are defined in rosbot_joy/config/config.yaml. 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.

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.

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
✅	✅	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_bringup/config/ekf.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
✅	✅	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]

Available Topics

🤖	🖥️	TOPIC	DESCRIPTION
✅	✅	cmd_vel	Sends velocity commands for controlling robot motion (use_stamped_vel: true). 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
✅	✅	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

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
✅	❌	led_strip/enable	ROSbot XL only. Enables (data: true) or disables (data: false) the LED strip animation. While disabled the led_strip_manager node neither computes nor publishes the led_strip image. 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.