In this video, we’ll see what the roswtf tool is. We’ll also see how and why this tool is used in ROS.

Let’s go!

Step 0. Create a project in Robot Ignite Academy(RIA)

We have the best online ROS course available in RIA. It helps you learn ROS in the easiest way without setting up ROS environment locally. The only thing you need is a browser! Create an account here and start to browse the trial course for free now! We’ll use the TF ROS 101 unit 4  as an example today.

Step 1. roswtf

The roswtf is a debugging tool in ROS which helps you to find the problem in your simulation.

Let’s have some examples. In the terminal, please type

ROS_IP= roswtf

The roswtf will check the system statically and dynamically. The static errors(e.g. the compilation error) will be shown in the static checks summary part. The dynamic checks summary shows the error found while running the ROS graph with ROS master. Here you can see that the roswtf found that the ROS_IP is invalid because it’s an empty string!

Let’s try it one more time with

ROS_MASTER_URI=127.1.1.1 roswtf

This time you will get an error shows that the 127.1.1.1 is not a valid url.

In conclusion, the roswtf is a powerful debugging tool to help you debugging your ROS program.

Want to learn more?

If you are a ROS beginner and want to learn ROS basics fast, we recommend you take any of the following courses on Robot Ignite Academy:

• ROS Basics In 5 Days (Python)
• ROS Basics In 5 Days (C++)

 

Edited by: Tony Huang

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Resources mentioned in the video:

– Robot Ignite Academy, the place to learn to program robots using only a web browser (the environment used in the video for demonstration)

– ROS Development Studio (ROSDS), another powerful online tool for pushing your ROS learning in a practical way

– roswtf on the ROS wiki

 

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