Skip to content

ROS 2 Parameters

Overview of ROS 2 Parameters

In ROS 2, a node parameter is a configurable value used to adjust a node's behavior without modifying its code. Parameters are important because they provide flexibility, allowing dynamic tuning and reusability of nodes across different scenarios. For instance say you had a ROS node that took data from a USB camera and published it to a topic. You could use parameters to set the frame rate, USB port, and color depth.

ROS 2 Parameters CLI

The following command are help full when you are debugging or tracking down a problem.

Command to list parameters 

ros2 param list /node_name

Command to get parameter value 

ros2 param get /node_name param_name

Adding ROS 2 Parameters

Adding Parameters to a ROS 2 program is not that hard. Below you can see the steps.

number_publisher.py
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import rclpy
from rclpy.node import Node

from example_interfaces.msg import Int64


class NumberPublisherNode(Node):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__("number_publisher")
        self.declare_parameter("number_to_publish", 2)
        self.declare_parameter("publish_frequency", 1.0)

        self.number_ = self.get_parameter("number_to_publish").value
        self.publish_frequency_ = self.get_parameter("publish_frequency").value

        self.number_publisher_ = self.create_publisher(Int64, "number", 10)
        self.number_timer_ = self.create_timer(1.0 / self.publish_frequency_, self.publish_number)
        self.get_logger().info("Number publisher has been started.")

    def publish_number(self):
        msg = Int64()
        msg.data = self.number_
        self.number_publisher_.publish(msg)


def main(args=None):
    rclpy.init(args=args)
    node = NumberPublisherNode()
    rclpy.spin(node)
    rclpy.shutdown()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()
number_publisher.cpp
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
#include "rclcpp/rclcpp.hpp"
#include "example_interfaces/msg/int64.hpp"

class NumberPublisherNode : public rclcpp::Node
{
public:
    NumberPublisherNode() : Node("number_publisher")
    {
        this->declare_parameter("number_to_publish", 2);
        this->declare_parameter("publish_frequency", 1.0);

        number_ = this->get_parameter("number_to_publish").as_int();
        double publish_frequency = this->get_parameter("publish_frequency").as_double();

        number_publisher_ = this->create_publisher<example_interfaces::msg::Int64>("number", 10);
        number_timer_ = this->create_wall_timer(std::chrono::milliseconds((int)(1000.0 / publish_frequency)),
                                                std::bind(&NumberPublisherNode::publishNumber, this));
        RCLCPP_INFO(this->get_logger(), "Number publisher has been started.");
    }

private:
    void publishNumber()
    {
        auto msg = example_interfaces::msg::Int64();
        msg.data = number_;
        number_publisher_->publish(msg);
    }

    int number_;
    rclcpp::Publisher<example_interfaces::msg::Int64>::SharedPtr number_publisher_;
    rclcpp::TimerBase::SharedPtr number_timer_;
};

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    rclcpp::init(argc, argv);
    auto node = std::make_shared<NumberPublisherNode>();
    rclcpp::spin(node);
    rclcpp::shutdown();
    return 0;
}