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Can someone explain callbacks?

asked 2012-07-18 02:52:00 -0500

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There seems to be a lack of information on callbacks, or at least hard to find, so I was wondering if someone here could understand them. Right now, they seem like magical functions. I'd never heard of them before, and the Internet hasn't been entirely helpful.

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Thanks, that's basically what I've discovered. I had just never heard of it before and they're incredibly useful.

IFLORbot gravatar image IFLORbot  ( 2012-07-18 10:36:11 -0500 )edit

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answered 2012-07-18 03:05:54 -0500

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A callback is a function that you do not call yourself, but define it yourself. Usually you pass the function pointer to another component that will call your function when it seems appropriate.

In the ROS setting a callback in most cases is a message handler. You define the message handler function and give it to subscribe. You never call it yourself, but whenever a message arrives ROS will call you message handler and pass it the new message, so you can deal with that.

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Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callback_(computer_programming)

Lorenz gravatar image Lorenz  ( 2012-07-18 03:08:39 -0500 )edit
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Note that ROS won't call your callback automatically. You have to tell it to spin.

PerkinsJames gravatar image PerkinsJames  ( 2012-07-24 10:59:05 -0500 )edit

I have a question: what's the convenience of a callback function, I think I still can write normal code to realise the functionality of callback. So, why do we have to use callback?

ningmang208 gravatar image ningmang208  ( 2020-10-08 14:29:56 -0500 )edit
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answered 2012-07-24 06:42:05 -0500

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Hello, This thread was also helpful to me. However I have a follow-up question:

I'm using Python to implement a navigation interface between the ROS nav stack and my own motor controllers. I have created a Driver object that subscribes to the 'cmd_vel' topic and receives Twist messages from this topic. My callback function from the subscriber determines motor commands based on the info in each Twist message it receives.

A confusing problem I've found is that I need to hand my callback function not just the Twist message but also the 'self' object, so that the callback function has access to some global parameters associated with the Driver object. I cannot find a way to pass both pieces of information to the callback function when it's called within the Subscriber command.

Code:

class Driver:
    def __init__(self):
         # node initialized and constants described here

    def subscribe_cmd_vel(self):
          rospy.Subscriber("cmd_vel", Twist, self.callback(self))
          rospy.spin()
    def callback(self, msg):
            print "Linear x of Twist message: " + str(msg.linear.x)
            # do some calculations with contents of msg

if __name__ == "__main__"
    dr = Driver()
    dr.subscribe_cmd_vel()

(end code)

I am consistently only passing the self object to my callback, not the Twist message. When this code hits the print line in the callback function, I get an error saying something like "The Driver object has no 'linear' field.". This means that my msg pointer is being pointed to the self object and my actual Twist message is being lost. Please tell me if you know what mistakes I've made here.

Many thanks, Khiya

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[you should ask this in a separate question]

Bill Smart gravatar image Bill Smart  ( 2012-07-24 13:26:55 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2012-07-18 02:52:00 -0500

Seen: 21,875 times

Last updated: Jul 24 '12