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Part 4: ROS Services

Introduction

Exercises: 4
Estimated Completion Time: 2 hours

Aims

In this part you will learn about another communication method that can be used to transmit data/information and invoke actions across a ROS Network: ROS Services. You will learn how ROS Services can be used in combination with the standard publisher/subscriber principles that you already know about, to control a robot more effectively for certain operations.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session you will be able to:

  1. Recognise how ROS Services differ from the standard topic-based publisher-subscriber approach, and identify appropriate use-cases for this type of messaging system.
  2. Implement Python node pairs to observe services in action, and understand how they work.
  3. Invoke different services using a range of service message types.
  4. Develop Python Service nodes of your own to perform specific robotic tasks.
  5. Harness Services, in combination with LiDAR data, to implement a basic obstacle avoidance behaviour.
  6. Demonstrate your understanding of ROS so far by developing a Python node which incorporates elements from this and previous parts of this course.

Additional Resources

Getting Started

Step 1: Launch your ROS Environment

If you haven't done so already, launch your ROS environment now. Having done this, you should now have access to a Linux terminal instance (aka TERMINAL 1).

Step 2: Restore your work (WSL-ROS Managed Desktop Users ONLY)

Remember that any work that you do within the WSL-ROS Environment will not be preserved between sessions or across different University computers, and so you should be backing up your work to your U:\ drive regularly. When prompted (on first launch of WSL-ROS in TERMINAL 1) enter Y to restore this1.

Step 3: Launch VS Code

It's also worth launching VS Code now. WSL users remember to check for this.

Step 4: Make Sure The Course Repo is Up-To-Date

Once again, it's worth quickly checking that the Course Repo is up-to-date before you start on the Part 4 exercises. Go back to Part 1 if you haven't installed it yet (really?!). For the rest of us, see here for how to update.

Step 5: Launch the Robot Simulation

From TERMINAL 1, launch the TurtleBot3 Waffle "Empty World" simulation:

TERMINAL 1: 

roslaunch turtlebot3_gazebo turtlebot3_empty_world.launch
...and then wait for the Gazebo window to open:

Tip

You can also use the tb3_empty_world command-line alias to launch the simulation, rather than using that long roslaunch command!

An Introduction to Services

So far, we've learnt about ROS topics and messages, and how individual nodes can access data on a robot by simply subscribing to topics that are being published by any other node on the system. In addition to this, we also learnt how any node can publish messages to any topic: this essentially broadcasts the data contained in the message across the ROS Network, making it available to any other node on the network that may wish to access it.

Another way to pass data between ROS Nodes is by using Services. These are different to messages in that "Service calls" (that is, the process of requesting a service) occur only between one node and another:

  • One node (a Service Client) sends a Request to another node.
  • Another node (a Service Server) processes that request, performs an action and then sends back a Response.

The difference between topic-based messaging and the ROS Service protocol

Services are Synchronous (or sequential): When a ROS node sends a request to a service (as a Service Client) it can't do anything else until the service has been completed and the Service Server has sent a response back. This can be useful for a few reasons:

  1. Discrete, short-duration actions: A robot might need to do something before it can move on to something else, e.g.:

    • A robot needs to see something before it can move towards it.
    • High definition cameras generate large amounts of data and consume battery power, so you may wish to turn a camera on for a specific amount of time (e.g. until an image has been captured) and then turn it off again.

  2. Computations: Remember that ROS is network-based, so you might want to offload some computations to a remote computer or a different device on a robot, e.g.:

    • A client might send some data and then wait for another process (the server) to process it and send back the result.

It's also worth noting that any number of ROS Client nodes can call a service, but you can only have a single Server providing that particular service at any one time.

Question

Can you think of any other scenarios where this type of communication protocol might be useful?

You'll explore how all this works in the next two exercises, where you will create service Server and Client nodes in Python, launch them from the command-line and observe the outcomes.

Exercise 1: Creating a Service Server in Python and calling it from the command-line

To start with, let's set up a service and learn how to make a call to it from the command-line to give you an idea of how this all works and why it might be useful.

  1. First open up a new terminal instance (TERMINAL 2) and create a package called part4_services using the catkin_create_pkg tool as you have done previously:

    1. Navigate to the catkin_ws/src directory:

      TERMINAL 2: 

      cd ~/catkin_ws/src

    2. Create the part4_services package and define rospy, geometry_msgs and tuos_msgs as dependencies:

      TERMINAL 2: 

      catkin_create_pkg part4_services rospy geometry_msgs tuos_msgs

    3. Run catkin build on the package:

      TERMINAL 2: 

      catkin build part4_services

    4. And then re-source your environment:

      TERMINAL 2: 

      source ~/.bashrc

      Tip

      We're having to do this source ~/.bashrc thing a lot aren't we?! We've created a handy alias for it... use src instead!

  2. Then, navigate to your package src folder that should have been created by catkin_create_pkg:

    TERMINAL 2: 

    roscd part4_services/src

  3. Create a file called move_server.py (using touch) and set this to be executable (using chmod).

  4. Then, open the file in VS Code, copy and paste this code and then save it.

    Note

    It's really important that you understand how the code above works, so that you know how to build your own service Servers in Python. Make sure you read the code annotations thoroughly.

  5. Return to the terminal window and launch the node using rosrun:

    TERMINAL 2: 

    rosrun part4_services move_server.py

    You should see the message:

    [INFO] [#####]: the 'move_service' Server is ready to be called...

  6. Then open up a new terminal window (TERMINAL 3)

  7. We can use the rosservice command to view all the services that are currently active on our system:

    TERMINAL 3: 

    rosservice list

    You should see the /move_service service that we defined in the Python code:

    service_name = "move_service"

  8. We can find out more about this using the rosservice info command:

    TERMINAL 3: 

    rosservice info /move_service

    Which should provide the following output:

    Node: /move_service_server
URI: #####
Type: tuos_msgs/SetBool
Args: request_signal

    You may notice that the node name is /move_service_server, as set in our Python code when we initialised the node:

    rospy.init_node(f"{service_name}_server")

    Type tells us the type of message this service uses, and we'll look at this in more detail later.
    Args tells us what input arguments we need to supply to the service in order to make a valid service call (or Request).

  9. We can now call this service from the command-line using the rosservice command again. The autocomplete functionality in the terminal can help us format this message correctly. Type the following text followed by a space and two tabs as illustrated:

    TERMINAL 3: 

    rosservice call /move_service[SPACE][TAB]

    which should autocomplete the rest of the command for us:

    rosservice call /move_service "request_signal: false"

  10. Press Enter to issue this command and make a call to the service. You should see the following response:

    response_signal: False
response_message: "Nothing happened, set request_signal to 'true' next time."

  11. Arrange your windows so that you can see both the Gazebo simulation with your robot in, and the terminal that you just issued the rosservice call command (TERMINAL 3).

  12. In TERMINAL 3 enter the rosservice call command again, but this time setting the input argument to true. Observe the response to the simulated robot in Gazebo. Switch back to TERMINAL 2 and observe the terminal output here too.

Summary:

You have just created a node in Python to launch a service. This node acted as a Server: sitting idle and waiting, indefinitely, for its service to be called. We then issued the call to the service via the command-line, which then prompted our Service Server to carry out the tasks that we had defined within the Python code, namely:

  1. Start a timer.
  2. Issue a velocity command to the robot to make it move forwards.
  3. Wait for 5 seconds.
  4. Issue a velocity command to make the robot stop.
  5. Prepare a Service Response and issue this to the terminal in which we called the service (TERMINAL 3).

Using rossrv

In the previous exercise we used rosservice list to identify all the services that were currently active on the ROS system. We then used rosservice info to find out a bit more about the service that we had launched with our Python node (which we called /move_service).

rosservice info /move_service:

Node: /move_service_server
URI: #####
Type: tuos_msgs/SetBool
Args: request_signal

Type tells us the type of message this service uses. Just like a topic message there are two parts to this definition:

tuos_msgs/SetBool
  1. The service message is part of a package called tuos_msgs
  2. The message itself is called SetBool

We can find out more about this using the rossrv command, which has the same usage as the rosmsg command that you have already used previously (for interrogating topic messages). rossrv gives us information about all the service messages that are installed on our system and that are available for us to use in any ROS applications that we create:

TERMINAL 3: 

rossrv info tuos_msgs/SetBool
... which gives: 

bool request_signal
---
bool response_signal
string response_message

The Format of a Service Message

As you can see from above, service messages have two parts to them, separated by three hyphens (---). Above the separator is the Service Request, and below it is the Service Response:

bool request_signal     <-- Request
---
bool response_signal    <-- Response (Parameter 1 of 2)
string response_message <-- Response (Parameter 2 of 2)

In order to Call a service, we need to provide data to it in the format specified in the Request section of the message. A service Server (like the Python node we created above) will then send data back to the caller in the format specified in the Response section of the message.

The tuos_msgs/SetBool service message that we're working with here has a one request parameter:

  1. A boolean input called request_signal
    ...which is the only thing we need to send to the Service Server in order to call the service.

There are then two response parameters:

  1. A boolean flag called response_signal
  2. A text string called response_message
    ...both of these will be returned to the client, by the server, once the Service has completed.

Exercise 2: Creating a Python Service Client Node

As well as calling a service from the command-line we can also build Python nodes to do the same thing (i.e. we can build Python Service Client Nodes). In this exercise you will learn how this is done.

  1. TERMINAL 3 should be idle, so from here navigate to the src folder within the part4_services package that we created earlier:

    TERMINAL 3: 

    roscd part4_services/src

  2. Create a new file called move_client.py and make sure that this is executable.

  3. Launch the file in VS Code, copy and paste this code and then save the file.

    Note

    Once again, be sure to read the code annotations, and make sure that you understand how this Python Service Client Node works too!

  4. Return to TERMINAL 3 and launch the node using rosrun:

    TERMINAL 3: 

    rosrun part4_services move_client.py

    The response should be exactly the same as observed in Exercise 1.

Exercise 3: Making and calling your own Service

In this exercise you will create your own service Server to make the Waffle perform a specific movement for a given amount of time and then stop.

A service message called tuos_msgs/TimedMovement has already been set up to help you do this. Interrogate this using the rossrv command (as described above) to work out how to use this message in your Python Server node.

The service should respond to four different movement commands to invoke four different actions:

  1. "fwd": Move forwards.
  2. "back": Move backwards.
  3. "left": Turn left.
  4. "right": Turn right.

The Server should make the robot perform the desired action for a duration that is also specified within the service message (in seconds).

Procedure:

  1. Close down the Service Server that is currently running in TERMINAL 2.

  2. Create a new node in your part4_services package:

    1. Navigate to the part4_services/src folder using roscd:

      TERMINAL 2: 

      roscd part4_services/src

    2. You can use the move_server.py node that you created earlier as a starting point if you want to. Copy the file and rename it timed_move_server.py using the cp command:

      TERMINAL 2: 

      cp move_server.py timed_move_server.py

  3. Open the new timed_move_server.py file in VS Code and modify it as follows:

    1. Change the imports to utilise the correct service message type (tuos_msgs/TimedMovement).
    2. Modify the rospy.Service call to use the TimedMovement service message type.

    3. Develop the callback_function() to:

      1. Process the two parameters that will be provided to the server via the service_request input argument.

        Remember

        You can use rossrv info ... to find out what these two parameters are called, and their data types.

      2. Make the robot perform the correct action.

      3. Return a correctly formatted service response message to the service caller.
      4. Launch your server node using rosrun from TERMINAL 2 and call the service from the command-line using the rosservice call command in TERMINAL 3, as you did earlier.

A recap on everything you've learnt so far...

You should now hopefully understand how to use the ROS Service architecture and understand why, and in what context, it might be useful to use this type of communication method in a robot application.

Remember

Services are synchronous and are useful for one-off, quick actions; or for offloading jobs or computations that might need to be done before something else can happen. (Think of it as a transaction that you might make in a shop: You hand over some money, and in return you get a chocolate bar, for example!)

Throughout this course so far we've learnt how to use a range of key ROS tools, and hopefully you're starting to understand how ROS works and how you might approach a robot programming task using this framework. In the final exercise now you'll consolidate some of the things that you've done so far:

  • Publishing and subscribing to topics.
  • Making a robot move.
  • Interpreting Laser Displacement Data from the LiDAR sensor.
  • Invoking a behaviour using a ROS Service.
  • Develop ROS Nodes in Python, using the Python Class Structure.

Manipulating the Environment in Gazebo

In order to carry out the last exercise you'll also need to be able to manipulate the robot's simulated environment using some basic tools in Gazebo. First, make sure that there are no active processes running in TERMINALS 2 or 3, but leave the Gazebo simulation in TERMINAL 1 running.

In the Gazebo simulation window, use the "Box" tool in the top toolbar to place a box in front of the robot:

Use the "Scale Mode" button to resize the box and use the "Translation Mode" button to reposition it.

Once you are happy with this, right-click on the object and select "Delete" to remove it from the world.

Exercise 4: Approaching an object using a Service and closed-loop control

For this exercise you need to build another Python Server node which must perform the following tasks:

  1. Make the robot move forwards, towards an object placed in front of it. As you know, you'll do this by publishing velocity commands to the /cmd_vel topic.
  2. The server node must then stop the robot before it hits the obstacle that you have placed in front of it by subscribing to the /scan topic and monitoring distance information from the LiDAR sensor telling us how far away the object is.
  3. The server must do this by considering two inputs received from a Service Request:
    1. The speed (in m/s) at which to approach the object.
    2. The distance (in meters) at which the robot must stop in front of it.
  4. A service message called tuos_msgs/Approach is available for you to use for this exercise. Use this to build your service server. Remember, you can find out more about this message using rossrv info.

  5. We haven't really done much work with the LiDAR data published to the /scan topic yet, so you might want to consider this suggested approach for building a /scan callback function.

    Tip

    You should use a class structure in your Python code here. Start off with the Server code from Exercise 1 and add to this to build the functionality required for this exercise.

Wrapping Up

In Part 4 you have learnt about ROS Services and why they might be useful for robot applications:

  • Services differ from standard topic-based communication methods in ROS in that they are a direct form of communication between one node and another.
  • The communication between the two nodes is sequential or synchronous: once a service Caller has called a service, it must wait until it has received a response.
  • This is useful for controlling quick, short-duration tasks or for offloading computations (which could perhaps also be considered decision-making).

Having completed all the exercises above, you should now be able to:

  • Create and execute Python Service Servers.
  • Create and execute Python Service Callers, as well as call services from the command-line.
  • Implement these principles with a range of different service message types to perform a number of different robot tasks.
  • Use LiDAR data effectively for basic closed-loop robot control.
  • Develop Python nodes which also incorporate principles from Parts 1, 2 & 3 of this course:
    • Publishing and subscribing to topics.
    • Controlling the velocity and position of a robot.
    • Using the Python Class architecture.
    • Harnessing ROS and Linux command-line tools.

WSL-ROS Managed Desktop Users: Save your work!

Remember, to save the work you have done in WSL-ROS during this session so that you can restore it on a different machine at a later date. Run the following script in any idle WSL-ROS Terminal Instance now:

wsl_ros backup

You'll then be able to restore it to a fresh WSL-ROS environment next time you fire one up (wsl_ros restore).

  1. Remember: you can also use the wsl_ros restore command at any time. ↩