A ROS 2 world system for robotics applications featuring new poses.

Overview • Architecture • Installation • Usage • fbot_world message and services • Contributing

Overview

fbot_world is a ROS 2 package for managing poses in world map scenarios. It allows loading and saving poses for reuse across different robotic applications.

It was designed for the RoboCup@Home and the robot BORIS competition but is adaptable to various robotics scenarios.

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Architecture

The system consists of three main packages:

fbot_world/
├── 📁 fbot_world/          # Core fbot_world files
|   ├── 📁 fbot_world/      # node files
│   ├── 📁 launch/      # launch files
│   ├── 📁 scripts/    # script files
└── 📁 fbot_world_msgs/          # Custom ROS message definitions

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Installation

Prerequisites

• ROS2 Humble
• Python 3.10+
• Ubuntu 22.04
• Dependencies listed in package.xml and requirements.txt

Setup

1. Clone the repository into your ROS workspace:

   cd ~/fbot_ws/src
   git clone https://github.com/fbotathome/fbot_world.git

2. Install dependencies:

   cd ~/fbot_ws
   sudo rosdep init  # Skip if already initialized
   rosdep update
   rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
   pip install -r src/fbot_world/requirements.txt

3. Build the workspace:

   cd ~/fbot_ws
   colcon build --packages-select fbot_world fbot_world_msgs
   source install/setup.bash

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Usage

Pose Node

Loads a poses/rooms YAML file and serves it through the /fbot_world/* services (see the table below). It also publishes RViz markers of every room and object sub-area on /fbot_world/debug_markers, and answers "which room am I in?" queries via /fbot_world/get_room.

# Launch pose node
ros2 launch fbot_world pose.launch.py config_file_name:=file_name_without_dot_yaml

Pose Writer Node

Interactively records the robot's base poses and saves them under the targets group of a YAML file. Drive/teleop the robot to a spot, give the pose a name, and the current /amcl_pose is captured (position + orientation). New poses are appended to the chosen file, so existing entries are preserved.

ros2 run fbot_world pose_writer

Place Pose Writer Node

Records fixed end-effector "place" poses (e.g. a shelf or bin drop point) under the place_poses group. It reads the gripper pose from TF (in the map frame) and disables arm torque so you can hand-guide the arm to the target, name it, and capture it; torque is re-enabled on exit.

⚠️ The arm goes limp when torque is cut — hold it before confirming the prompt.

Configurable via parameters: reference_frame (default map), ee_frame (default wx200/ee_gripper_link), group_set (default place_poses), robot_name (default wx200) and torque_group (default arm).

ros2 run fbot_world place_pose_writer

Room Writer Node

Annotates room boundaries and object sub-areas by clicking points in RViz, and writes them to the rooms section of a YAML file — the same structure the Pose Node loads (used by /fbot_world/get_room). Only the rooms section is written; any existing poses/targets are left untouched.

Workflow: launch navigation with your map and RViz, run the node, then use the RViz Publish Point tool to click each corner of a room. The in-progress polygon is previewed live; when you close it, the finished area is drawn filled, labelled and coloured. You can then type the pose names that belong to the room and draw any object sub-areas the same way.

In RViz, add a MarkerArray display on /room_writer/preview (fixed frame map). Terminal commands while drawing: Enter closes the polygon, u undoes the last point, r resets, a aborts.

ros2 run fbot_world room_writer

fbot_world message and services

Services

Service	Type	Description
/fbot_world/get_pose	GetPose	Service callback to return the pose and size for a requested target key
/fbot_world/get_set	GetPoseFromSet	Service callback to return all poses for a requested group name key
/fbot_world/get_groups_names	GetSets	Service callback that returns available pose groups and room metadata (poses/objects) from the YAML file
/fbot_world/get_room	GetRoom	Service that returns the room and object sub-area containing the pose provided in the request (or "None")

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Contributing

1. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feat/amazing-feature)
2. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
3. Push to the branch (git push origin feat/amazing-feature)
4. Open a Pull Request