rclnodejs - The ROS 2 Client Library for JavaScript

ROS Distro*	Status
Rolling Kilted Jazzy Humble

* rclnodejs development and maintenance is limited to the ROS 2 LTS releases and the Rolling development branch

rclnodejs is a Node.js client library for the Robot Operating System (ROS 2). It provides tooling and comprehensive JavaScript and TypeScript APIs for developing ROS 2 solutions capable of interoperating with ROS 2 nodes implemented in other languages such as C++ and Python.

Here’s an example for creating a ROS 2 node that publishes a string message in a few lines of JavaScript.

const rclnodejs = require('rclnodejs');
rclnodejs.init().then(() => {
  const node = new rclnodejs.Node('publisher_example_node');
  const publisher = node.createPublisher('std_msgs/msg/String', 'topic');
  publisher.publish(`Hello ROS 2 from rclnodejs`);
  node.spin();
});

Documentation

• Installation
• rclnodejs-cli
• API Documentation
• Using TypeScript
• ROS2 Interface Message Generation
• Examples
• Electron Demo
• TypeScript Demo
• Efficient Usage Tips
• FAQ and Known Issues
• Building from Scratch
• Contributing

Installation

Prerequisites

Before installing rclnodejs please ensure the following software is installed and configured on your system:

• Nodejs version >= 16.13.0.

• ROS 2 SDK for details. DON’T FORGET TO SOURCE THE ROS 2 SETUP FILE

Installing rclnodejs

Install the rclnodejs version that is compatible with your version of ROS 2 (see table below).

For the most current version of rclnodejs run:

npm i rclnodejs

To install a specific version of rclnodejs use:

npm i rclnodejs@x.y.z

• Note: to install rclnodejs from GitHub: add "rclnodejs":"RobotWebTools/rclnodejs#<branch>" to your package.json dependency section.

rclnodejs-cli

rclnodejs-cli is a companion project we recently launched to provide a commandline interface to a set of developer tools for working with this rclnodejs. You may find rclnodejs-cli particularly useful if you plan to create ROS 2 node(s) and launch files for working with multiple node orchestrations.

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Usage: rclnodejs [command] [options]

Options:
  -h, --help                               display help for command

Commands:
  create-package [options] <package-name>  Create a ROS2 package for Nodejs development.
  generate-ros-messages                    Generate JavaScript code from ROS2 IDL interfaces
  help [command]                           display help for command

API Documentation

API documentation is generated by jsdoc and can be viewed in the docs/ folder or online doc. To create a local copy of the documentation run npm run docs.

Using rclnodejs with TypeScript

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