ROS 2

ROS 2 is the newest version of ROS (Robot Operating System), a general purpose robotics library that can be used with the PX4 Autopilot to create powerful drone applications. It captures most of the learnings and recently added features of ROS (1), improving a number of flaws of the earlier version.

Tip The PX4 development team highly recommend that you use/migrate to this version of ROS!

The translation layer between ROS 2 and PX4 is software known as the PX4-ROS 2 bridge. This provides a bridge between PX4 UORB messages and ROS 2 messages and types, effectively allowing direct access to PX4 from ROS 2 workflows and nodes. The bridge uses UORB message definitions and correspondent IDL types to generate code to serialise and deserialise the messages heading in and out of PX4.

The main topics in this section are:

• ROS 2 User Guide: an overview how to use ROS 2 with PX4 (covering the PX4-ROS2 bridge, installation/setup, and how to build ROS 2 applications for PX4).

• ROS 2 microRTPS Offboard Control Example

Further Reading/Information

• microRTPS bridge: PX4 middleware that underlies the PX4-ROS 2 bridge.

• ROS 1 using ROS 2 as a bridge: The official ROS 1 Bridge package (ros1_bridge) allows ROS 1 and ROS 2 applications to be used in a single setup.