Handling of /tf and /tf_static

[AndrewJSchoen]

Hi all,

I was looking at using this library for visualizing some robots with a ros2 backend. I have gotten things to the point on the backend ros2 sever that the robot displays correctly in rviz2, but the robot does not display with the ros3djs visualizer. I looked into the connections that the ros2_web_bridge node has, and found that it does not subscribe to the /tf or /tf_static, despite setting up a TFClient (roslibjs). Is this something that I am doing incorrectly here, or is this not an intended behavior to have the subscriptions created?

Let me know if you need any relevant code and I will be happy to provide it.

Thanks!

[AndrewJSchoen]

Just to connect some threads, I ended up creating a ROS2-compatible version of tf2_web_republisher but am still having issues with both ros2-web-bridge and rosbridge_server, documented in rosbridge_suite#552

[minggangw]

Sorry for the delay, I suggest you could use

DEBUG=ros2-web-bridge* node bin/rosbridge.js

to check the log.

[AndrewJSchoen]

Hi, thanks for the response.

I did that and got the following:

DEBUG=ros2-web-bridge* node bin/rosbridge.js
  ros2-web-bridge:index ROS2 node started +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:index Starting server on port 9090 +1ms
Websocket started on ws://localhost:9090
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Status level set to error (0) +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Web bridge 055ddf70-f2de-4107-9f6f-c09b614065cc is created +0ms
(node:93228) DeprecationWarning: Deep requiring like `const uuidv4 = require('uuid/v4');` is deprecated as of uuid@7.x. Please require the top-level module when using the Node.js CommonJS module or use ECMAScript Modules when bundling for the browser. See https://github.com/uuidjs/uuid#deep-requires-now-deprecated for more information.
(Use `node --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge JSON command received: {"op":"advertise","id":"advertise:/tf2_web_republisher/goal:15","type":"tf2_web_republisher/TFSubscriptionActionGoal","topic":"/tf2_web_republisher/goal","latch":false,"queue_size":100} +49ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge advertise a topic: /tf2_web_republisher/goal +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Response: {"op":"status","level":"error","msg":"advertise: Error: The message required does not exist: tf2_web_republisher, msg, TFSubscriptionActionGoal","id":"advertise:/tf2_web_republisher/goal:15"} +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge JSON command received: {"op":"advertise","id":"advertise:/tf2_web_republisher/cancel:16","type":"actionlib_msgs/GoalID","topic":"/tf2_web_republisher/cancel","latch":false,"queue_size":100} +2ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge advertise a topic: /tf2_web_republisher/cancel +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:ResourceProvider Publisher has been created, and the topic name is /tf2_web_republisher/cancel. +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Suppressed: {"op":"status","level":"none","msg":"OK","id":"advertise:/tf2_web_republisher/cancel:16"} +64ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge JSON command received: {"op":"subscribe","id":"subscribe:/tf2_web_republisher/feedback:17","type":"tf2_web_republisher/TFSubscriptionActionFeedback","topic":"/tf2_web_republisher/feedback","compression":"none","throttle_rate":0,"queue_length":0} +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge subscribe a topic named /tf2_web_republisher/feedback +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Response: {"op":"status","level":"error","msg":"subscribe: Error: The message required does not exist: tf2_web_republisher, msg, TFSubscriptionActionFeedback","id":"subscribe:/tf2_web_republisher/feedback:17"} +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge JSON command received: {"op":"subscribe","id":"subscribe:/visualization_marker:18","type":"visualization_msgs/Marker","topic":"/visualization_marker","compression":"png","throttle_rate":0,"queue_length":0} +1ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge subscribe a topic named /visualization_marker +0ms

Now, if I am reading this correctly, it seems like the issue is actually that roslibjs is looking for the wrong stuff in the wrong places (Expecting ROS1-formatted messages/services/actions instead of ROS2), and isn't actually an issue with ros2-web-bridge itself per se, unless it is trying to account for whatever protocol it expects. Thoughts?

[minggangw]

The roslibjs doesn't support ROS2 officially, ros2-web-bridge depends on rosbridge v2 protocol to communicate with the front-end JS library, which I think causes this issue.

[sirawats]

This "msg":"advertise: Error: The message required does not exist: tf2_web_republisher, msg, TFSubscriptionActionGoal" may be related to my issue #175

[EricSun787]

Hi, I also have a problem about tfw_web_republisher. I found that in ros3djs, all display plug-ins that require tfClient cannot be displayed normally, such as pose, urdf, laserscan, etc.
Here is part of my debug information：

  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Send message to subscription. +234ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge JSON command received: {"op":"publish","id":"publish:/tf2_web_republisher/cancel:8","topic":"/tf2_web_republisher/cancel","msg":{"id":"goal_0.7679118211490816_1626342927244"},"latch":false} +82ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Publish a topic named /tf2_web_republisher/cancel with {"id":"goal_0.7679118211490816_1626342927244"} +1ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Response: {"op":"status","level":"error","msg":"publish: TypeError: Invalid argument: sec in Time","id":"publish:/tf2_web_republisher/cancel:8"} +1ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge JSON command received: {"op":"publish","id":"publish:/tf2_web_republisher/goal:9","topic":"/tf2_web_republisher/goal","msg":{"goal_id":{"stamp":{"secs":0,"nsecs":0},"id":"goal_0.15019265547285143_1626342927560"},"goal":{"source_frames":["base_footprint","map"],"target_frame":"/odom","angular_thres":0.01,"trans_thres":0.01,"rate":30}},"latch":false} +0ms
  ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Publish a topic named /tf2_web_republisher/goal with {"goal_id":{"stamp":{"secs":0,"nsecs":0},"id":"goal_0.15019265547285143_1626342927560"},"goal":{"source_frames":["base_footprint","map"],"target_frame":"/odom","angular_thres":0.01,"trans_thres":0.01,"rate":30}} +0ms

ros2-web-bridge:Bridge Response: {"op":"status","level":"error","msg":"publish: TypeError: Invalid argument: sec in Time","id":"publish:/tf2_web_republisher/cancel:8"} +1ms
This line seems to say that there is a problem with the Time format in tf2_web_republisher.
Is there any progress on this issue?

Thanks！

[minggangw]

I think the root cause is that the actionlib is implemented by the roslibjs library for ROS1, while for ROS2, the actionlib is implemented by the rcl and exposed through different clients, e.g. rclpy/rclnodejs.

Unfortunately, the ros2-web-bridge doesn't expose the actionlib feature because rosbridge v2 protocol doesn't support the actionlib.

[SomaGallai]

Is there a work-around for this issue?