Is it possible to run ROS Indigo and Kinetic Kame on multiple machines together?

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This has been asked a couple of times before, copying an earlier answer from #q252118.

Although it is not advisable, mixing ROS versions will work in some cases. Naturally, it depends on which versions you are trying to mix, but for at least a number of the newest releases, the underlying communication protocol hasn't changed, so as long as your message definitions are identical, it should work. Obviously, if the message definition changes for the newer distro, this will no longer work so there's no saying if it will continue to work.

For a more elaborate explanation, take a look at the following related questions: #q104086, #q76279 and #q37403.

Hope that helps!