ros2_rust_example

Example of ROS 2 package written in Rust. This repository is a part of the tutorial published on by blog page.

Rust support in ROS 2

Rust is not supported in ROS 2 by default. However, there are two solutions to provide such a support.

• ros2-rust
• r2r

I have used the first one (ros2-rust) package. Mostly, because it's more actively developed and in my opinion has a better documentation. So, the presented example will be based on this approach.

Prerequisite

Testing Environment

I have used the following specification. However, newer versions should be also fine, especially Ubuntu 22.04 and ROS 2 Humble.

Used software:

• Ubuntu 20.04
• Python 3.9
• rustc 1.64.0 (Rust compiler)
• ROS 2 Galactic

Environment preparation

• Install Python 3.8+
• Install ROS 2 Galactic (or Humble). Here is the instruction for Ubuntu.
• Install Rust (the script is intended for Linux).

  curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

• If you have already installed the Rust, then just update it:

rustup update

• Install tools necessary to configure and build the ros2-rust ROS package

sudo apt install -y git libclang-dev python3-vcstool python3-pip

• Install packages necessary to use Cargo with ROS packaging system colcon

cargo install cargo-ament-build
pip install git+https://github.com/colcon/colcon-cargo.git
pip install git+https://github.com/colcon/colcon-ros-cargo.git

Workspace creation

• Create a new workspace

mkdir -p ~/ros2_rust_ws/src
cd ~/ros2_rust_ws/src

Build ros2_rust from sources

• Clone the ros2-rust repository to the workspace

cd ~/ros2_rust_ws/src
git clone [email protected]:ros2-rust/ros2_rust.git

• Get all ros2-rust dependencies and source ROS configuration. Make sure that a ROS_DISTRO is set to the correct ROS version (currently ros2_rust supports foxy, galactic, humble and rolling)

cd ..
vcs import src < src/ros2_rust/ros2_rust_${ROS_DISTRO}.repos
. /opt/ros/${ROS_DISTRO}/setup.sh

• Build the workspace with ros2-rust

colcon build --packages-up-to examples_rclrs_minimal_pub_sub

In case of building issues please check the original building instruction.

Build and run this package

• Clone repository to workspace

cd ~/ros2_rust_ws/src
git clone [email protected]:mdrwiega/ros2_rust_example.git

• Build the package

colcon build --packages-select rust_example

• Run publisher and subscriber. Two terminal will be necessary. Run the publisher node in the first terminal

ros2 run rust_example publisher

• In the second terminal run the subscriber node

ros2 run rust_example subscriber

• Alternatively, run the nodes with created launch file

ros2 launch rust_example publisher_and_subscriber_launch.yaml