Data Tamer Tools

Tools for working with DataTamer data in ROS2, providing Foxglove integration and MCAP data storage capabilities.

Overview

This package provides five main tools:

• Foxglove Relay: Real-time visualization of DataTamer data and selected ROS message types through Foxglove Studio
• MCAP Sink: Store DataTamer data in MCAP (MessagePack) format for efficient storage and playback, with rotation hooks for regular and lifecycle ROS nodes
• MCAP Converter: Convert DataTamer-encoded MCAP files to Protobuf-encoded MCAP files for Foxglove compatibility
• Rosout Logger: Record ROS log messages (/rosout) to MCAP files with Foxglove Log schema
• Log Rotation Coordinator: Synchronize log directory rotation across multiple MCAP loggers

Tools

1. Foxglove Relay (foxglove_relay)

A ROS2 component that bridges DataTamer data to Foxglove Studio for real-time visualization.

Features:

• Automatically discovers DataTamer topics (/data_tamer/schema, /data_tamer/schemas, /data_tamer/snapshot)
• Automatically discovers sensor_msgs/msg/NavSatFix topics and relays each source as its own foxglove.LocationFix channel (Map track)
• Automatically discovers geographic_msgs/msg/GeoPath topics and relays each source as foxglove.GeoJSON (Map overlay)
• Automatically discovers sensor_msgs/msg/LaserScan topics and relays each source as foxglove.LaserScan
• Automatically discovers visualization_msgs/msg/MarkerArray topics and relays each source as foxglove.SceneUpdate
• Automatically discovers tf2_msgs/msg/TFMessage topics and relays each source as foxglove.FrameTransform
• Optional MCAP recording of selected Foxglove schemas (foxglove.LocationFix, foxglove.GeoJSON, foxglove.LaserScan, foxglove.SceneUpdate, foxglove.FrameTransform) for offline playback in Foxglove
• Supports both JSON and Protocol Buffers encoding for Foxglove visualization
• Converts DataTamer schemas to JSON Schema or Protocol Buffers descriptor format
• Creates Foxglove WebSocket server for real-time data streaming
• Supports soft eviction of idle channels (closes channels but keeps schemas)
• Configurable eviction policies and discovery intervals
• Optional ROS log relaying to Foxglove

Prerequisites:

• Your DataTamer channels must use DataTamer::ROS2PublisherSink to publish data to ROS2 topics
• The relay automatically discovers and subscribes to the standard DataTamer ROS2 topics

Usage:

# Launch as ROS2 component
ros2 run data_tamer_tools foxglove_relay

# Or with custom parameters
ros2 run data_tamer_tools foxglove_relay --ros-args \
  -p host:=0.0.0.0 \
  -p port:=8765 \
  -p use_protobuf:=true \
  -p eviction_ttl_sec:=900 \
  -p eviction_period_sec:=30 \
  -p discovery_sec:=5 \
  -p enable_rosout:=true

Parameters:

WebSocket Server Configuration:

• host (string, default: “0.0.0.0”): WebSocket server host address
• port (int, default: 8765): WebSocket server port number

Data Encoding:

• use_protobuf (bool, default: true): Use Protocol Buffers encoding instead of JSON
  • true: Data is serialized using Protocol Buffers for better performance and smaller payloads
  • false: Data is serialized as JSON strings for human readability

Channel Management:

• eviction_ttl_sec (int, default: 900): Time-to-live for idle channels in seconds
  • Channels that haven’t received data for this duration will be soft-evicted (closed but schema kept)
• eviction_period_sec (int, default: 30): Interval in seconds for checking stale channels
  • How often the relay checks for channels that should be evicted
• discovery_sec (int, default: 5): Interval in seconds for topic discovery
  • How often the relay scans for new DataTamer topics to subscribe to
• navsat_ttl_sec (int, default: 30): Time-to-live for NavSatFix sources; stale sources are pruned from the relay’s discovered LocationFix tracks
• geopath_ttl_sec (int, default: 0): Time-to-live for GeoPath sources (0 disables pruning)
• laser_scan_ttl_sec (int, default: 0): Time-to-live for LaserScan sources (0 disables pruning)
• scene_ttl_sec (int, default: 0): Time-to-live for MarkerArray / SceneUpdate sources (0 disables pruning)
• tf_ttl_sec (int, default: 0): Time-to-live for TFMessage / FrameTransform sources (0 disables pruning)
• navsat_qos (string, default: “sensor”): QoS profile for NavSatFix subscriptions. Accepts sensor (or sensor_data), system_default (or default), best_effort, or reliable.
• location_fix_prefix (string, default: “/locations”): Prefix for relayed per-source foxglove.LocationFix topics
• geojson_prefix (string, default: “/geojson”): Prefix for relayed per-source foxglove.GeoJSON topics
• laser_scan_prefix (string, default: “/scan”): Prefix for relayed per-source foxglove.LaserScan topics
• scene_prefix (string, default: “/scene”): Prefix for relayed per-source foxglove.SceneUpdate topics
• transform_prefix (string, default: “/transforms”): Prefix for relayed per-source foxglove.FrameTransform topics

Supported Relay Types:

MarkerArray Notes:

• visualization_msgs/msg/Marker::ADD, DELETE, and DELETEALL are relayed
• Supported marker geometries are ARROW, CUBE, SPHERE, CYLINDER, LINE_STRIP, LINE_LIST, and TEXT_VIEW_FACING

Topic Mapping:

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file