DecisionNode for ROS 2

DecisionNode is a decision engine. You ask it questions about what a camera sees, and it returns typed answers: true or false, one of your options, a score, a number, a point or a box, each with its confidence. Boosters add readings made for robots and drones: how far away things are, and where the things you name are. This repository brings it to ROS 2 as two packages:

Supported: ROS 2 Jazzy (Ubuntu 24.04), Humble (Ubuntu 22.04) and Rolling, on amd64 and arm64.

Safety: decisions, never the controller

Answers are decisions only. They are never the sole means of controlling a robot, a vehicle, an aircraft, a machine or any other system whose failure could cause death, injury or damage.

The DecisionNode Terms of Service say so in their section on safety-critical use, and they apply to everything this node publishes. If you use answers anywhere near such a system, you must:

• keep control in a controller designed, tested and, where required, certified for that purpose, and use answers only as one input to it;
• keep independent safety controls, limits and fallback behaviour that bring and keep the system in a safe state without any answer, including when an answer is late, dropped, unavailable or wrong;
• test and validate the system together with DecisionNode in the conditions it will be used in, before use and after every change of model, settings or software;
• hold every certification, authorisation and insurance, and follow every law, that applies to the system and its operation;
• never let anyone believe that DecisionNode controls the system or is responsible for its safety.

DecisionNode gives no warranty that the service or any answer is suitable, safe, timely, available or reliable for a safety-critical system, and such use is at your own risk. This software is provided under the MIT license, without warranty of any kind.

In practice: subscribe to decision from your own logic, check ok, read header.stamp to know how old the frame was, and treat a missing or stale answer as “no answer”. The control loops guide shows the pattern.

Quickstart (5 minutes)

You need ROS 2 Jazzy, Humble or Rolling and a DecisionNode API key from the console.

1. Build the packages.

mkdir -p ~/dn_ws/src && cd ~/dn_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/Bynn-Intelligence/decision-node-ros2.git
cd ~/dn_ws
source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y

The node uses the DecisionNode Python SDK, which is installed with pip:

# Jazzy and Rolling (Ubuntu 24.04 and later)
python3 -m pip install --user --break-system-packages "bynn-decisionnode>=0.3.2,<0.4"
# Humble (Ubuntu 22.04)
python3 -m pip install --user "bynn-decisionnode>=0.3.2,<0.4"

Then:

colcon build --packages-select decisionnode_msgs decisionnode_ros
source install/setup.bash

2. Start a camera. A USB webcam with usb_cam:

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-usb-cam
ros2 run usb_cam usb_cam_node_exe

Or play a recorded bag that has an image topic:

ros2 bag play my_recording --loop --remap /camera/image_raw:=/image_raw

3. Run the node in another terminal:

source ~/dn_ws/install/setup.bash
export DECISIONNODE_API_KEY=your-api-key
ros2 launch decisionnode_ros decisionnode.launch.py

4. Read the decisions:

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file