communication between two different distributions using micro-ros
Can two different ros2 distributions be used when communicating between ros2 with micro-ros?
I'm wanting to use humble on the micro-ros side and foxy on the ros2 end - are there any issues with doing this?
Asked by SonicBoom on 2022-09-05 04:42:09 UTC
Answers
Other than possible differences in ROS message types between packages for Foxy and Humble, there should be no problems. Middleware abstraction will be the same, even if DDS implementations differ.
More about it is there "About different ROS 2 DDS/RTPS vendors".
You should focus on starting with micro-ros with Humble, get every ROS topic/service/action as a working input/output, then you can connect them with your PC as usual.
Asked by ljaniec on 2022-09-05 06:28:19 UTC
Comments
A quick note:
Middleware abstraction will be the same, even if DDS implementations differ.
the abstraction perhaps, but there is currently no guarantee of cross-vendor compatibility. Cyclone DDS and Fast-DDS are known to be incompatible for instance (see ros2/rmw_cyclonedds#184).
This essentially means only Fast-DDS can be used with micro-ROS, unless the application does not use services nor actions (ie: only topics).
For the OP, this wouldn't pose a problem, as both Foxy and Humble use Fast-DDS by default. But Galactic would be incompatible, and so would anyone trying to use Cyclone DDS with micro-ROS.
Asked by gvdhoorn on 2022-09-06 03:13:19 UTC
@gvdhoorn Thank you for your valuable comment, TIL!
Asked by ljaniec on 2022-09-06 06:12:30 UTC
It's not something widely known, no.
It is one of the bigger drawbacks of the current design I believe.
Asked by gvdhoorn on 2022-09-06 12:00:49 UTC
Comments
Other than possible differences in ROS message types between packages for Foxy and Humble, there should be no problems. Do you have something specific in mind?
Asked by ljaniec on 2022-09-05 04:51:14 UTC
Thanks. Nope, I was just wanting to make sure that this wouldn't cause any issues.
Asked by SonicBoom on 2022-09-05 05:51:20 UTC
I moved this comment to a reply + added some direction to your search, I hope :)
Asked by ljaniec on 2022-09-05 06:29:07 UTC