ROS2 for .NET

Target	Status
Linux
Windows Desktop

Windows UWP CI Builds are currently disabled, see this issue for more information.

Introduction

This is a collection of projects (bindings, code generator, examples and more) for writing ROS2 applications for .NET Core and .NET Standard.

Features

The current set of features include:

• Generation of all builtin ROS types
• Support for publishers and subscriptions
• Support for clients and services
• Support action clients and servers
• Cross-platform support (Linux, Windows, Windows IoT Core, UWP)

What's missing?

Lots of things!

• Unicode types
• String constants (specifically BoundedString)
• Component nodes
• Tests
• Documentation
• More examples (e.g. IoT, VB, UWP, HoloLens, etc.)

Sounds great, how can I try this out?

First of all install the standard ROS2 dependencies for your operating system of choice (NOTE: only do this if building Windows Desktop or Linux. For UWP, see the relevant section below): https://github.com/ros2/ros2/wiki/Installation#building-from-source

Next make sure you've either installed .Net Core (preferred) https://www.microsoft.com/net/learn/get-started or Mono https://www.mono-project.com/. (NOTE: For building unit tests, .NET 6 is required).

For running on Linux or Windows Desktop, one can build ros2_dotnet (along with all desired packages containing interface definitions) as an overlay on top of an existing ROS2 installation. The ros2_dotnet_foxy.repos contains all necessary repositories to build the core ros2_dotnet project along with all standard ROS2 interface packages. If you are using other packages which provide interface definitions, those must also be included in the ros2_dotnet workspace in order for .NET bindings to be generated. (NOTE: if you wish to build the core of ROS2 from source, everything through the rcl layer is required.)

For running within UWP (Universal Windows Platform) applications, the entire core of ROS2 must be compiled for UWP compatibility.

Windows (Desktop)

Assuming you've installed ROS2 (pre-built binary packages) to the directory c:\dev\ros2_foxy per the official installation instructions, run the following from an Administrator Visual Studio 2019 Developer Command Prompt:

(NOTE: Building as an overlay on top of binary distributions of ROS2 has presented some challenges. As of this writing, you may also need to include the rosidl package due to some unicode/locale compatibility problems. This is done for you below in the line preceding colcon build. This step can/should be omitted if building on top of a built-from-source ROS2 workspace)

call \dev\ros2_foxy\local_setup.bat
md \dev\ros2_dotnet_ws\src
cd \dev\ros2_dotnet_ws
curl -sk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2-dotnet/ros2_dotnet/main/ros2_dotnet_foxy.repos -o ros2_dotnet_foxy.repos
vcs import \dev\ros2_dotnet_ws\src < ros2_dotnet_foxy.repos
git clone --branch foxy https://github.com/ros2/rosidl src\ros2\rosidl
colcon build --merge-install

Linux

Assuming ROS2 foxy installed to the standard location, run the following commands:

source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash
mkdir -p ~/ros2_dotnet_ws/src
cd ~/ros2_dotnet_ws
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2-dotnet/ros2_dotnet/main/ros2_dotnet_foxy.repos
vcs import ~/ros2_dotnet_ws/src < ros2_dotnet_foxy.repos
colcon build

Universal Windows Platform (Win32, Win64)

We'll build this in two steps, first ament (the build system) and related tools which will run natively on the host, followed by ROS2 itself, built for UWP and the target architecture.

If you have previously installed ROS2 dependencies (OpenSSL, tinyxml, log4cxx, etc) it is strongly recommended to uninstall those dependencies before building to avoid any non-UWP binaries getting pulled into the build.

ament

md \dev\ament\src
cd \dev\ament
curl -sk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2-dotnet/ros2_dotnet/main/ament_dotnet_uwp.repos -o ament_dotnet_uwp.repos
vcs import src < ament_dotnet_uwp.repos
colcon build --merge-install
call install\local_setup.bat

UWP

Replace %TARGET_ARCH% with Win32 or x64

md \dev\ros2\src
cd \dev\ros2
curl -sk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2-dotnet/ros2_dotnet/main/ros2_dotnet_uwp.repos -o ros2_dotnet_uwp.repos
vcs import src < ros2_dotnet_uwp.repos
cd \dev\ament
call install\local_setup.bat
cd \dev\ros2
colcon build --merge-install --packages-ignore rmw_fastrtps_dynamic_cpp rcl_logging_log4cxx rcl_logging_spdlog ros2trace tracetools_launch tracetools_read tracetools_test tracetools_trace --cmake-args -A "%TARGET_ARCH%" -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=WindowsStore -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION=10.0.17763 -DTHIRDPARTY=ON -DINSTALL_EXAMPLES=OFF -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DRCL_LOGGING_IMPLEMENTATION=rcl_logging_noop

Now you can just run a bunch of examples.

Publisher and subscriber

Publisher:

Windows

call \dev\ros2_dotnet_ws\install\local_setup.bat

ros2 run rcldotnet_examples rcldotnet_talker

Linux

. ~/ros2_dotnet_ws/install/local_setup.sh

ros2 run rcldotnet_examples rcldotnet_talker

Subscriber:

Windows

call \dev\ros2_dotnet_ws\install\local_setup.bat

ros2 run rcldotnet_examples rcldotnet_listener

Linux

. ~/ros2_dotnet_ws/install/local_setup.sh

ros2 run rcldotnet_examples rcldotnet_listener

Enjoy!

Using generated DLLs in your UWP application from Visual Studio

Create a new Visual Studio project (Visual C# - Windows Universal - Empty app).

In Solution Explorer panel:

right click on Universal Windows project - Add - Existing item...

and include every DLL file from {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\bin. Now select all of these files in Solution Explorer and check/set the properties:

Build action: Content
Copy to output directory: Copy always

This allows you to retrieve the files in the same directory as the assembly.

Next step, in Solution Explorer panel:

right click on References - Add reference...

and include {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\lib\rcldotnet\dotnet\rcldotnet_assemblies.dll, {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\lib\rcldotnet\dotnet\rcldotnet_common.dll and {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\lib\std_msgs\dotnet\std_msgs_assemblies.dll.

Now you can include your ROS2 code in MainPage.xaml.cs script, compile your project and run it on HoloLens Emulator or HoloLens physical device.

Using generated DLLs in your UWP application from Unity

NOTE: Tested on Unity 2018.2.8f1

Create a new Unity project and set up the following editor properties.

Build Settings

Set your target platform properly:

File - Build Settings - Universal Windows Platform - Switch Platform

then set UWP build settings:

Target Device: HoloLens
Build Type: D3D
SDK: Latest installed
Visual Studio Version: Latest installed
Build and Run on: Local Machine and Windows Phone
Build Configuration: Release

and let unchecked the rest.

Player Settings

• Other Settings

  Configuration

  Scripting Runtime Version: .NET 4.x Equivalent
  Scripting Backend: .NET
  Api Compatibility Level: .NET 4.x
  

• Publishing Settings

  Capabilities

  • InternetClient
  • InternetClientServer
  • PrivateNetworkClientServer

• XR Settings

  • Virtual Reality Supported

  Virtual Reality SDKs

  Windows Mixed Reality

Add files

Create Assets/Plugins and Assets/Scripts folders.

In Plugins folder include every DLL file from {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\bin. Also include {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\lib\rcldotnet\dotnet\rcldotnet_assemblies.dll, {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\lib\rcldotnet\dotnet\rcldotnet_common.dll and {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\lib\std_msgs\dotnet\std_msgs_assemblies.dll.

In Scripts folder create your C# scripts and attach them to a scene GameObject to execute them when the app starts.

Finally, build your project to generate a Visual Studio solution.

File - Build Settings - Build

Unity generated Visual Studio solution

Open the VS solution generated after building your Unity project. In Solution Explorer panel:

right click on Universal Windows project - Add - Existing item...

and include every DLL file from {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\bin. Now select all of these files in Solution Explorer and check/set the properties:

Build action: Content
Copy to output directory: Copy always

This allows you to retrieve the files in the same directory as the assembly.

Next step, in Solution Explorer panel:

right click on References - Add reference...

and include {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\lib\rcldotnet\dotnet\rcldotnet_assemblies.dll, {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\lib\rcldotnet\dotnet\rcldotnet_common.dll and {your_ros2_uwp_ws}\install\lib\std_msgs\dotnet\std_msgs_assemblies.dll.

Finally compile your project for UWP (32 bits) and run it on HoloLens Emulator or HoloLens physical device.