Default unit of ros::Time::now()

asked 2018-07-03 03:34:33 -0500

262 ●32 ●41 ●51 http://deepiinside.blo...

Hi All,

Could you please let me know the default unit of ros::Time::now()

Snippet of the code is given below

ros::Time ros_time; 
while (ros::ok())
{
    ros_time = ros::Time::now();
    //Some code
    rate.sleep();
    ros::spinOnce();
}

The output what I am getting is as below

   1530606380.304236318
   1530606380.323266596
   1530606380.343226943
   1530606380.364454049
   1530606380.383265757
   1530606380.403270513
   1530606380.423227417
   1530606380.443286735
   1530606380.463231277
   and so on..

Current system time is 14:00

Excuse me if the question is too simple.

Thank you. KK

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i have same question

Panason ( 2019-08-03 04:48:31 -0500 )edit

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answered 2018-07-03 03:55:26 -0500

gvdhoorn
86574 ●283 ●1432 ●1054 http://cor.tudelft.nl/

updated 2018-07-03 03:56:13 -0500

I believe #q189867 and wiki/roscpp/Overview/Time should explain this.

If it doesn't, please edit your question and clarify what is not clear yet.

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@gvdhoorn Thank you ... Got it.. Whatever time returned by ros::Time::now() is in Unix epoch time format... which can be converted to time format using this website https://www.epochconverter.com/

kk2105 ( 2018-07-03 07:04:57 -0500 )edit

The time: "1530606380.463231277" is in second. The number doesn't need to reflect any time zone in human world. It's for robotic world, people sometimes call it simulation time.

lukelu ( 2020-09-21 14:02:32 -0500 )edit

@lukelu: I'm not sure that's correct.

The epoch is defined as:

the number of seconds (or milliseconds) elapsed since an absolute point in time, midnight of Jan 1 1970 in UTC time. (UTC is Greenwich Mean Time without Daylight Savings time adjustments.)

So there is a timezone.

And an epoch stamp is not simulated time necessarily. It's just a particular notation for timestamps. The clock source could be the actual clock or a simulated source.

gvdhoorn ( 2020-09-21 14:41:28 -0500 )edit

@gvdhoorn Great to learn that. Thanks for your correction ! Do you know why ROS chose the midnight of 1st, Jan, 1970 in UTC as the starting time ? Does the date and the year have special, historical meaning to robot community ?

lukelu ( 2020-09-21 15:25:09 -0500 )edit

Do you know why ROS chose the midnight of 1st, Jan, 1970 in UTC as the starting time ?

This is not something "ROS chose".

The Unix epoch or Unix time is something which has existed since long before ROS was even conceived, and probably will also outlive it.

See wikipedia/Unix_time.

gvdhoorn ( 2020-09-22 01:53:33 -0500 )edit

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Default unit of ros::Time::now()

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