ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder

Create a "ros-humble-ros1-bridge" package that can be used directly within Ubuntu 22.02 ROS2 Humble. Both amd64 and arm64 architectures are supported.

Note1: It takes approximately 10 minutes on my PC, equipped with a 6-core CPU (12 logical cores) and 24GB of memory.
Note2: It takes about 1 GB of memory per logical CPU core to compile the ROS1 bridge. So, if your system has only 4 GB of memory but 100 logical CPU cores, it will still use only 4 logical cores for the compilation. Now, why does it take so much memory to compile? Well, you can blame the overuse of C++ templates...

How to create this builder docker images:

  git clone https://github.com/TommyChangUMD/ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder.git
  cd ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder

  # By default, ros-tutorals support will be built: (bridging the ros-humble-example-interfaces package)
  docker build . -t ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder

Note1: Since building a docker image just needs docker, you could do this step on any system that has docker installed -- it doesn't have to on a Ubuntu 22.04 and it doesn't need ROS2 neither.
Note2: The builder image can be created on an amd64 machine (e.g., Intel and AMD CPUs) or an arm64 machine (e.g., Raspberry Pi 4B and Nvidia Jetson Orin). Docker will automatically select the correct platform variant based on the host's architecture.

Alternative builds:

  # **[OPTIONAL]** If you don't want to build ros-tutorals support:
  docker build . --build-arg ADD_ros_tutorials=0 -t ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder

  # **[OPTIONAL]** If you want to build grid-map support:  (bridging the ros-humble-grid-map package)
  docker build . --build-arg ADD_grid_map=1 -t ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder

  # **[OPTIONAL]** If you want to build an example custom message:
  docker build . --build-arg ADD_custom_msgs=1 -t ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder

Note1: Don't forget to install the necessary ros-humble-grid-map packages on your ROS2 Humble if you choose to build the bridge with the grid-map support added.
Note2: For the custom message example, there is no pre-build package for ROS2 Humble so you will need to compile it from the source. For details, see Checking example custom message in the Troubleshoot section.

How to create ros-humble-ros1-bridge package:

0.) Start from the latest Ubuntu 22.04 ROS 2 Humble Desktop system, create the "ros-humble-ros1-bridge/" ROS2 package:

    cd ~/
    apt update; apt upgrade
    apt -y install ros-humble-desktop
    docker run --rm ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder | tar xvzf -

Note1: It's important that you have ros-humble-desktop installed on your ROS2 Humble system because we want to match it with the builder image as closely as possible. So, if you haven't done so already, do:
```
apt -y install ros-humble-desktop
```
Otherwise you may get an error about missing ibexample_interfaces__rosidl_typesupport_cpp.so. See issue https://github.com/TommyChangUMD/ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder/issues/10
Note1: There is no compilation at this point, the docker run command simply spits out a pre-compiled tarball for either amd64 or arm64 architecture, depending on the architecture of the machine you used to created the builder image.
Note2: The assumption is that this tarball contains configurations and libraries matching your ROS2 Humble system very closely, although not identical.
Note3: We don't really need the builder image anymore, to delete it, do:

    docker rmi ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder

How to use ros-humble-ros1-bridge:

1.) First start a ROS1 Noetic docker and bring up a GUI terminal, something like:

  rocker --x11 --user --privileged \
         --volume /dev/shm /dev/shm --network=host -- ros:noetic-ros-base-focal \
         'bash -c "sudo apt update; sudo apt install -y ros-noetic-rospy-tutorials tilix; tilix"'

Tha docker image used above, ros:noetic-ros-base-focal, is multi-platform. It runs on amd64 (eg., Intel and AMD CPUs) or arm64 architecture (eg., Raspberry PI 4B and Nvidia Jetson Orin). Docker will automatically select the correct platform variant based on the host's architecture.

You may need to install rocker first:

  sudo apt install python3-rocker

Note1: It's important to share the host's network and the /dev/shm/ directory with the container.
Note2: You can add the --home rocker option if you want your home directory to be shared with the docker container. Be careful though, as the host's ~/.bashrc will be executed inside the container.
Note3: You can also use ROS1 Melodic. Just replace ros:noetic-ros-base-focal with ros:melodic-ros-base-bionic and also replace ros-noetic-rospy-tutorials with ros-melodic-rospy-tutorials.

2.) Then, start "roscore" inside the ROS1 Noetic docker container

  source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
  roscore

3.) Now, from the Ubuntu 22.04 ROS2 Humble system, start the ros1 bridge node.

  source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
  source ~/ros-humble-ros1-bridge/install/local_setup.bash
  ros2 run ros1_bridge dynamic_bridge
  # or try:
  ros2 run ros1_bridge dynamic_bridge --bridge-all-topics

Note: We need to source local_setup.bash and NOT setup.bash because the bridge was compiled in a docker container that may have different underlay locations. Besides, we don't need to source these underlays in the host system again.

3.) Back to the ROS1 Noetic docker container, run in another terminal tab:

  source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
  rosrun rospy_tutorials talker

4.) Finally, from the Ubuntu 22.04 ROS2 Humble system, run in another terminal tab:

  source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
  ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp listener

How to add custom message from ROS1 and ROS2 source code

See an step 6.3 and 7 in the Dockerfile for an example.

Note1: Make sure the package name ends with "_msgs".
Note2: Use the same package name for both ROS1 and ROS2.

Also see the troubleshoot section.

How to make it work with ROS1 master running on a different machine?

Run roscore on the Noetic machine as usual.
On the Humble machine, run the bridge as below (assuming the IP address of the Noetic machine is 192.168.1.208):

  source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
  source ~/ros-humble-ros1-bridge/install/local_setup.bash
  ROS_MASTER_URI='http://192.168.1.208:11311' ros2 run ros1_bridge dynamic_bridge
  # Note, change "192.168.1.208" above to the IP address of your Noetic machine.

Troubleshoot

Fixing "[ERROR] Failed to contact master":

If you have Noetic and Humble running on two different machines and have already set the ROS_MASTER_URI environment variable, you should check the network to ensure that the Humble machine can reach the Noetic machine via port 11311.

$ nc -v -z 192.168.1.208 11311
# Connection to 192.168.1.208 11311 port [tcp/*] succeeded!

Checking tf2 message / service:

$ ros2 run ros1_bridge dynamic_bridge --print-pairs | grep -i tf2
  - 'tf2_msgs/msg/TF2Error' (ROS 2) <=> 'tf2_msgs/TF2Error' (ROS 1)
  - 'tf2_msgs/msg/TFMessage' (ROS 2) <=> 'tf2_msgs/TFMessage' (ROS 1)
  - 'tf2_msgs/msg/TFMessage' (ROS 2) <=> 'tf/tfMessage' (ROS 1)
  - 'tf2_msgs/srv/FrameGraph' (ROS 2) <=> 'tf2_msgs/FrameGraph' (ROS 1)

Checking AddTwoInts message / service:

By default, --build-arg ADD_ros_tutorials=1 is implicitly added to the docker build ... command.

The ROS2 Humble system must have the ros-humble-example-interfaces package installed.

$ sudo apt -y install ros-humble-example-interfaces
$ ros2 run ros1_bridge dynamic_bridge --print-pairs | grep -i addtwoints
- 'example_interfaces/srv/AddTwoInts' (ROS 2) <=> 'roscpp_tutorials/TwoInts' (ROS 1)
- 'example_interfaces/srv/AddTwoInts' (ROS 2) <=> 'rospy_tutorials/AddTwoInts' (ROS 1)

Checking grid-map message / service:

Must have --build-arg ADD_grid_map=1 added to the docker build ... command.

Note: In addition, the ROS2 Humble system must have the ros-humble-grid-map package installed.

$ sudo apt -y install ros-humble-grid-map
$ ros2 run ros1_bridge dynamic_bridge --print-pairs | grep -i grid_map
- 'grid_map_msgs/msg/GridMap' (ROS 2) <=> 'grid_map_msgs/GridMap' (ROS 1)
- 'grid_map_msgs/msg/GridMapInfo' (ROS 2) <=> 'grid_map_msgs/GridMapInfo' (ROS 1)
- 'grid_map_msgs/srv/GetGridMap' (ROS 2) <=> 'grid_map_msgs/GetGridMap' (ROS 1)
- 'grid_map_msgs/srv/GetGridMapInfo' (ROS 2) <=> 'grid_map_msgs/GetGridMapInfo' (ROS 1)
- 'grid_map_msgs/srv/ProcessFile' (ROS 2) <=> 'grid_map_msgs/ProcessFile' (ROS 1)
- 'grid_map_msgs/srv/SetGridMap' (ROS 2) <=> 'grid_map_msgs/SetGridMap' (ROS 1)

Checking example custom message:

Thanks to Codaero for the custom message source code.

Must have --build-arg ADD_custom_msgs=1 added to the docker build ... command.


# First, install the ROS2 pacakge from the source
$ git clone https://github.com/TommyChangUMD/custom_msgs.git
$ cd custom_msgs/custom_msgs_ros2
$ source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
$ colcon build
$ source install/setup.bash

Now, run the bridge

$ source ~/ros-humble-ros1-bridge/install/local_setup.bash $ ros2 run ros1_bridge dynamic_bridge --print-pairs | grep -i PseudoGridMap

'custom_msgs/msg/PseudoGridMap' (ROS 2) <=> 'custom_msgs/PseudoGridMap' (ROS 1)

TommyChangUMD / ros-humble-ros1-bridge-builder

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