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Dynamic message types

asked 2013-06-25 01:09:24 -0500

mmcbroom
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updated 2014-01-28 17:17:01 -0500

ngrennan
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I am new to ROS but have experience with DDS real-time pub/sub middleware. DDS has the concept of dymanic message type registration, which allows you to define a message type at run-time rather than compile time. See section 7.5.2 in: portals.omg.org/dds/sites/default/files/x-types_ptc_11-03-11.pdf. This allows DDS clients change the message structure without recompiling the application ( i.e. by reading message structure from IDL). Is there a similar concept in ROS?

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answered 2013-06-25 01:38:26 -0500

dornhege

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AFAIK: No.

Changing the structure in general would be impossible for c++ nodes. Technically that could be done for python nodes, but in that case all involved nodes would need to get that information from somewhere. I don't think there are any functionalities for doing that at runtime.

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As @dornhege mentioned it is possible in python to run the generators. We have done a few prototypes of things which do this. With the modularity of nodes only the ones which want the specific message need to be restarted. So you don't need to restart the entire system, but only affected parts.

tfoote ( 2013-06-25 07:34:16 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2013-06-25 01:09:24 -0500

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Last updated: Jun 25 '13

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