README

ROS X Introspection

Unified successor of the following libraries:

• ros_type_introspection

• ros_msg_parser

• ros2_introspection

The library compiles either using:

• ROS1 (catkin),

• ROS2 (colcon/ament) or

• without any ROS dependency (vanilla cmake).

To parse any ROS message at runtime, it requires:

• The name of the type (for instance “sensors_msgs/JointState”)

• The definition of the type (for instance this one),

• The raw memory buffer to be deserialized into individual key/values pairs.

The raw memory buffer is usually obtained by:

• rosbag::MessageInstance and Topic::ShapeShifter in ROS1.

• GenericSubscriber or rosbag2_storage::SerializedBagMessage on ROS2.

• MCAP.