ROS 2 Workflow

Connect SRB to ROS 2 or Space ROS for autonomy development and validation.

The active ROS 2 agent receives actions from ROS and steps the environment. The passive interface lets a workflow control actions while ROS publishes sensors and exposes services.

1. Start an Active ROS 2 Agent

Use srb agent ros with a batched Box action space:

srb agent ros -e peg_in_hole env.num_envs=2 'env.active_sensors=[proprioception,contact,transform,visual]'

For closed-loop control, --ros_sync awaits fresh actions after step one:

srb agent ros --ros_sync -e peg_in_hole env.num_envs=2 'env.active_sensors=[proprioception,contact,transform,visual]'

See the ROS agent reference for option details.

Debug with action and observation delays at zero:

srb agent ros --ros_sync -e waypoint_navigation env.action_delay_steps=0 env.observation_delay_steps=0

List Topics

Without local ROS 2, run .docker/join.bash, then list topics:

ros2 topic list

Topics (expand)

/clock
/parameter_events
/rosout
/srb/env0/action/cmd_vel
/srb/env0/action/event
/srb/env0/action/raw
/srb/env0/cam_base/camera_info
/srb/env0/cam_base/image_depth
/srb/env0/cam_base/image_rgb
/srb/env0/cam_base/pointcloud
/srb/env0/cam_scene/camera_info
/srb/env0/cam_scene/image_depth
/srb/env0/cam_scene/image_rgb
/srb/env0/cam_scene/pointcloud
/srb/env0/cam_wrist/camera_info
/srb/env0/cam_wrist/image_depth
/srb/env0/cam_wrist/image_rgb
/srb/env0/cam_wrist/pointcloud
/srb/env0/end_effector/joint_pos
/srb/env0/end_effector/joint_states
/srb/env0/reward
/srb/env0/reward/penalty_action_rate
/srb/env0/reward/penalty_undesired_robot_contacts
/srb/env0/reward/reward_align_peg_to_hole_primary
/srb/env0/reward/reward_align_peg_to_hole_secondary
/srb/env0/reward/reward_distance_ee_to_obj
/srb/env0/reward/reward_distance_peg_to_hole_bottom
/srb/env0/reward/reward_distance_peg_to_hole_entrance
/srb/env0/reward/reward_grasp
/srb/env0/reward/reward_lift
/srb/env0/robot/delta_twist
/srb/env0/robot/joint_states
/srb/env0/terminated
/srb/env0/truncated
/srb/env1/...          (mirrors env0)
/srb/envs/action/cmd_vel
/srb/envs/action/event
/srb/envs/action/raw
/srb/envs/end_effector/joint_pos
/srb/envs/robot/delta_twist
/tf
/tf_static

Namespaces:

/srb/env[0-N]/... targets one environment; /srb/envs/... targets all.

With env.num_envs=1, prefixes vanish, e.g. /srb/reward and /srb/action/cmd_vel.

Topic	Message Type	Description
`/clock`	`rosgraph_msgs/Clock`	Simulation time
`/tf`, `/tf_static`	`tf2_msgs/TFMessage`	Scene transforms
Control
`**/{robot_name}/{action_name}`	Robot-specific	Robot control; normalized policy actions (message fields are containers, not SI units)
`**/action/raw`	`std_msgs/Float64MultiArray`	Flat action vector in action-space order
`**/action/cmd_vel`	`geometry_msgs/Twist`	Available when the task action config supports direct commands
`**/action/event`	`std_msgs/Bool`	Available when the task action config supports direct commands
Perception
`**/[{sensor_name}]/{data}`	Sensor-specific	Scene sensors
`**/{robot_name}/joint_states`	`sensor_msgs/JointState`	Articulation joints
MDP
`**/reward`	`std_msgs/Float32`	Total reward
`**/reward/{term_name}`	`std_msgs/Float32`	Reward terms
`**/terminated`	`std_msgs/Bool`	Termination flag
`**/truncated`	`std_msgs/Bool`	Truncation flag

Echo env0’s reward:

ros2 topic echo /srb/env0/reward

data: 2.36441707611084
---
data: 2.3652756214141846
---
data: 2.36613130569458
---
data: 2.3669850826263428
---

Publish to Topics

Publish at 20 Hz:

ros2 topic pub --rate 20 /srb/envs/action/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/Twist "{linear: {z: -0.2}, angular: {z: 0.785}}"

2. Start the Passive ROS 2 Interface

Enable the passive interface with --interface ros. Run rand on eight multi_sample_collection instances with visual sensors:

srb agent rand -e multi_sample_collection env.num_envs=8 'env.active_sensors=[proprioception,contact,transform,visual]' --interface ros

--interface accepts multiple values; following Hydra key=value overrides forward automatically.

Call Services

Reset one via /srb/env{i}/reset, or all via /srb/envs/reset. Requests are queued and apply after the next step; with --ros_sync, that step waits for a fresh action.

ros2 service list

Reset one environment:

ros2 service call /srb/env0/reset std_srvs/srv/Empty

ros2 service call /srb/envs/reset std_srvs/srv/Empty

Next: Reinforcement Learning Workflow

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