BTick

BTick integrates with ROS 2 to provide real-time Behavior Tree monitoring and interactive debugging for BehaviorTree.CPP v4 applications.

Overview & Capabilities

The integration connects BTick to the BehaviorTree.CPP execution and monitoring interfaces to expose tree structure, runtime state transitions, and supported debugging controls.

Prerequisites & Dependencies

Ensure ROS 2 and the required BehaviorTree.CPP dependencies are installed and available in your environment.

Building the btick Package

Clone the repository into a ROS 2 workspace:

mkdir -p ~/robot_ws/src
cd ~/robot_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/SherifFathey/btick.git

Install dependencies and build the package:

cd ~/robot_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
colcon build --packages-select btick --symlink-install
source install/setup.bash

Package Configuration

CMakeLists.txt

Add btick to your project’s dependencies:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.8)
project(my_robot_behavior)

find_package(ament_cmake REQUIRED)
find_package(rclcpp REQUIRED)
find_package(behaviortree_cpp REQUIRED)
find_package(btick REQUIRED)

add_executable(my_bt_runner src/my_bt_runner.cpp)

ament_target_dependencies(my_bt_runner
  rclcpp
  behaviortree_cpp
  btick
)

install(TARGETS my_bt_runner
  DESTINATION lib/${PROJECT_NAME}
)

package.xml

Declare the dependencies in package.xml:

<depend>rclcpp</depend>
<depend>behaviortree_cpp</depend>
<depend>btick</depend>

C++ Integration Example

The following steps show how to integrate BTick into an existing BehaviorTree.CPP application.

Step 1: Include the BTick Header

#include <btick/btick.hpp>

Step 2: Attach the BTick Monitor

After creating your behavior tree, instantiate btick::Monitor to enable monitoring and supported debugging features in BTick:

btick::Monitor monitor(node, tree, "MainRobotTree", xml_path);

Constructor arguments:

• node: The ROS 2 node used for communication.
• tree: The BT::Tree instance to monitor.
• "MainRobotTree": The tree name displayed in the BTick interface.
• xml_path: The XML file path, used to retrieve tree definition details such as port metadata.

Step 3: Enable Optional Logging

To record execution data to a JSON file, optionally create a btick::Logs instance:

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