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ROS2 for Objective C and iOS

Build status

Target Status
macOS Build Status
iOS Build Status

Introduction

This is a set of projects (bindings, code generator, examples and more) that enables developers to write ROS2 applications in Objective C on macOS and iOS (iPhone, iPad)

Besides this repository itself, there's also:

Does this support Swift?

Yes. I decided to target Objective C since I found it is easier to build Swift applications on top of Objective C, than the opposite.

Does this work on iOS?

Yep! Make sure to use this fork as your DDS vendor. Even though the name of the branch is "cpp11-android", I ended up adding support for iOS on top of it.

Features

The current set of features include:

  • Generation of all builtin ROS types
  • Support for publishers and subscriptions
  • Clients and services
  • Support for iOS (iPhone, iPad)

Sounds great, how can I try this out?

The following steps show how to build the examples for both macOS and iOS.

macOS

mkdir -p ~/ros2_objc_ws/src
cd ~/ros2_objc_ws
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/esteve/ros2_objc/master/ros2_objc_macos.repos
vcs import ~/ros2_objc_ws/src < ros2_objc_macos.repos
src/ament/ament_tools/scripts/ament.py build --isolated

Now you can just run a bunch of examples.

Talker and Listener

Talker:

. ~/ros2_objc_ws/install_isolated/local_setup.sh

ROSTalker

Listener:

. ~/ros2_objc_ws/install_isolated/local_setup.sh

ROSListener

Client and Service

Service:

. ~/ros2_objc_ws/install_isolated/local_setup.sh

ROSAddTwoIntsService

Client:

. ~/ros2_objc_ws/install_isolated/local_setup.sh

ROSAddTwoIntsClientAsync

You can also combine any scenario where the talker/listener or client/service are written in Objective C, Java, Python and C++ and they should talk to each other.

iOS

The iOS setup is slightly more complex. If you do not have a jailbroken device, you will have to sign the resulting apps, which is much easier to do on Xcode's IDE than the command line.

The following was tested on an iPhone 5C running iOS 9.1.

mkdir -p ~/ros2_ios_ws/src
cd ~/ros2_ios_ws
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/esteve/ros2_objc/master/ros2_objc_ios.repos
vcs import ~/ros2_ios_ws/src < ros2_objc_ios.repos
touch ~/ros2_ios_ws/src/ruslo/polly/examples/01-executable/AMENT_IGNORE
touch ~/ros2_ios_ws/src/ruslo/polly/examples/02-library/AMENT_IGNORE
touch ~/ros2_ios_ws/src/ruslo/polly/examples/03-shared-link/AMENT_IGNORE

export XCODE_XCCONFIG_FILE=$HOME/ros2_ios_ws/src/ruslo/polly/scripts/NoCodeSign.xcconfig

src/ament/ament_tools/scripts/ament.py build \
  --use-xcode \
  --cmake-args \
  -DTHIRDPARTY=ON \
  -DINSTALL_EXAMPLES=OFF \
  -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF \
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$HOME/ros2_ios_ws/src/ruslo/polly/ios-nocodesign.cmake \
  -DCMAKE_XCODE_ATTRIBUTE_ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH=NO -- \
  --make-flags -sdk iphoneos

If you want to run the examples on the iOS Simulator, just replace -sdk iphoneos with -sdk iphonesimulator on the command above.

You will now have the supporting static libraries in ~/ros2_ios_ws/install_isolated, so now we need to properly build the examples for iOS and sign them.

Let's fire up XCode, build the talker and listener examples, and install them onto our device.

Talker:

cd ~/ros2_ios_ws

open src/ros2_objc/ros2_ios_examples/ros2_listener_ios/Listener/Listener.xcodeproj

Pick your device from the dropdown next to the "Build" button (the one that looks like a "Play" icon) icon and press "Build". Make sure to choose an appropriate development team to sign the app.

Talker:

cd ~/ros2_ios_ws

open src/ros2_objc/ros2_ios_examples/ros2_talker_ios/Talker/Talker.xcodeproj

Again, choose a valid development team so Xcode can sign the app.

You can try out running the talker on the desktop and the listener on your iOS device or viceversa. Or if you happen to have an Android device, follow the instructions on http://github.com/esteve/ros2_java and have your mobile devices talk to each other :-)

Enjoy!

TODO

  • Support nested types, constant values and lists in the generator
  • Support QoS in rclobjc
  • Provide instructions for integrating with Swift
  • Add tests
  • Add tutorial for developing ROS2/iOS applications from scratch