launch_pal

Utilities for simplifying some common ROS2 launch operations.

get_pal_configuration

Implementation of the PAL’s PAPS-007 standard for configuration management.

Retrieves all the parameters, remappings and arguments for a given node by looking for ament_index-registered YAML configurations file. It properly handle overloading of parameters, enabling for instance to have a default configuration and a specific configuration for a given robot family or robot unit.

User overrides

Users can provide local overrides via configuration files in $HOME/.pal/config.

For instance, creating a file ~/.pal/config/default_volume.yml with the content:

/volume:
  ros__parameters:
    default_volume: 75

would override the ROS parameter default_volume for the node /volume.

This is useful for eg persist user configuration across robot reboots.

The default location of user configuration is $HOME/.pal/config. It can by changed by setting the environment variable $PAL_USER_PARAMETERS_PATH.

Variables

Configuration files can cointain variables in the form ${VAR}.

/costmap:
  ros__parameters:
    robot_radius: ${robot_radius}

These variables are resolved by using the robot_info_publisher.

/robot_info_publisher:
  ros__parameters:
    robot_radius: 0.275

By default, variables values are stored in /etc/robot_info/conf.d and can be overriden by the user in $HOME/.pal/robot_info/conf.d.

Templates

Templates define configuration presets of a Node. They define a set of parameters, remappings and arguments that define a way to achieve a certain functionality of a node. Templates are independent from the node they are used in, and can be used in multiple nodes.

rgb_camera_low_contrast.yaml

ros__parameters:
  ...
  color:
    contrast": 20
    gain": 10
    gamma": 100
    saturation": 10
  ...

rgb_camera_high_contrast.yaml

ros__parameters:
  ...
  color:
    contrast": 50
    gain": 60
    gamma": 300
    saturation": 60
  ...

To use a Template, the template key must be set in the Node’s configuration file.

head_camera.yaml

/head_camera_node:
  template: "rgb_camera_low_contrast.yaml"
  ...

right_hand_camera.yaml

/right_hand_camera_node:
  template: "rgb_camera_low_contrast.yaml"
  ...

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Contributing Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to this project Whether it’s a bug report, new feature, correction, or additional documentation, we greatly value feedback and contributions from our community.

Please read through this document before submitting any issues or pull requests to ensure we have all the necessary information to effectively respond to your bug report or contribution.

Reporting Bugs/Feature Requests

We welcome you to use the GitHub issue tracker to report bugs or suggest features.

When filing an issue, please check existing open issues, or recently closed, issues to make sure somebody else hasn’t already reported the issue. Please try to include as much information as you can. Details like these are incredibly useful:

• A reproducible test case or series of steps
• The version of our code being used
• Any modifications you’ve made relevant to the bug
• Anything unusual about your environment or deployment

Contributing via Pull Requests

Contributions via pull requests are much appreciated. Before sending us a pull request, please ensure that:

1. You are working against the latest source on the master branch.
2. You check existing open, and recently merged, pull requests to make sure someone else hasn’t addressed the problem already.
3. You open an issue to discuss any significant work - we would hate for your time to be wasted.

To send us a pull request, please:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Modify the source; please focus on the specific change you are contributing. If you also reformat all the code, it will be hard for us to focus on your change.
3. Ensure local tests pass. (colcon test)
4. Commit to your fork using clear commit messages.
5. Send a pull request, answering any default questions in the pull request interface.
6. Pay attention to any automated CI failures reported in the pull request, and stay involved in the conversation.

GitHub provides additional documentation on forking a repository and creating a pull request.

Licensing

Any contribution that you make to this repository will be under the Apache 2 License, as dictated by that license:

5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise,
   any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work
   by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of
   this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
   Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify
   the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed
   with Licensor regarding such Contributions.