Espeak - ROS2

ROS 2 interface to the espeak-ng command line tool. The repository is composed of the espeak package which implements the interface to the command line tool and the espeak_interfaces package which contains the message definitions.

Installation

The package depends on the espeak-ng executable. On Ubuntu, it can be downloaded with

$ apt install espeak-ng

Usage

The espeak node acts as a server. It responds to espeak_itnerfaces/Sentence commands sent to it by other nodes. Start the server with

$ ros2 run espeak_ros espeak

and send it commands (using the command line) with

$ ros2 topic pub --once text_to_speech espeak_interfaces/Sentence \
    "text: Welcome to the espeak ROS node!"

The speed, pitch, and other espeak-ng parameters can be configured in the message itself:

$ ros2 topic pub --once text_to_speech espeak_interfaces/Sentence \
    '{text: "Welcome to the espeak ROS node!", settings: {words_per_minute: 100}}'

For a full list of supported options, read VoiceSettings.msg.

Usage Inside a Docker Container

To output sound from the container, PulseAudio needs to be configured to expose a unix socket. Install paprefs

apt install paprefs

On Ubuntu 20.04, a symlink needs to be created to enable paprefs to detect the PulseAudio configuration:

ln -s /usr/lib/pulse-13.99.1/ /usr/lib/pulse-13.99

Run paprefs, and tick Network Server > Enable network access to local sound devices. After closing, restart the computer (restarting pulseaudio seems to not be enough).

Then, add the following to your docker run command

$ docker run ... \
    --env "PULSE_SERVER=unix:/run/user/$(id -u)/pulse/native"                  \
    --env "PULSE_COOKIE=/run/pulse/cookie"                                     \
    --volume ~/.config/pulse/cookie:/run/pulse/cookie                          \
    --volume /run/user/$(id -u)/pulse/native:/run/user/$(id -u)/pulse/native
)

This maps the pulseaudio unix domain socket between the host and the container and passes the authentication cookie to the container.

Development

Ensure that the style tests pass before pusshing code. To fix copyright issues run:

$ ament_copyright --add-missing "Thibaud Chupin" mit

To release a new version of the package:

• update the CHANGELOG.rst

  $ catkin_prepare_release
  

For non-patch releases, pass --bump major or --bump minor.

• Create the new relase with bloom-release and let it create the PR on rosdistro

  $ bloom-release --rosdistro foxy espeak_ros
  

Any contribution that you make to this repository will be under the MIT license, as dictated by that license.