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Does ROS have anything similar to a "global variable"?

asked 2021-12-09 20:27:54 -0600

kidpaul gravatar image

updated 2021-12-09 20:30:12 -0600

I created a node that subscribes data from 3 other nodes (2 nodes publish data in 30Hz while 1 node publishes in about 10Hz). The node I created uses a transformation matrix(4x4) from the slower node (10Hz) to transform data from other 2 faster nodes (30Hz) and publishes them. The problem is that I don't need every single transformation matrix (but occasionally) from the data stream of the slower node and I also don't want this one becomes a bottleneck of this entire process by using message filter time_sync. So, I wonder whether ROS has something similar to a global variable that sits in one place and can be read or modified so that the node I created doesn't have to wait until all data from 3 other nodes get subscribed.

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I don't think there's a global variable concept in ROS1 for this purpose. Could you perhaps limit the publishing rate of the 10Hz node itself since you want to use it at a lower rate anyway? Or you could have a wrapper node around the 10Hz node that implements that rate reduction and/or potentially caches the transform matrix.

bergercookie gravatar image bergercookie  ( 2021-12-10 04:10:18 -0600 )edit

Thank you for the verification! The reason why I want to find something like global variable is to avoid the lower rate publishing.

kidpaul gravatar image kidpaul  ( 2021-12-10 11:20:21 -0600 )edit

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answered 2021-12-10 07:02:56 -0600

Mike Scheutzow gravatar image

You tagged this rospy so I'll assume you're asking about python. Yes, python supports global variables within a single OS process. However, you should implement thread-safety if you read/write such a variable from multiple places in your code, typically by using a mutex.

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Thank you for your answer! Yeah, it seems like python global variable is the way to do what I want.

kidpaul gravatar image kidpaul  ( 2021-12-10 11:16:13 -0600 )edit
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answered 2021-12-10 12:37:41 -0600

Airuno2L gravatar image

If you're only using the data in a single node, the most common way to do this would be to make your node a class, then have the subscriber to the slow data update a class variable. Then your fast subscribers would just access the class variable.

ROS does have network wide variables like the parameter server and dynamic reconfigure, but since it sounds like what you're doing is within a single node, I think the class variable is the way to go.

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I would go with this approach if I needed constant updates by the data stream of a slower node. Thank you for the idea though!

kidpaul gravatar image kidpaul  ( 2021-12-10 20:00:47 -0600 )edit

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Asked: 2021-12-09 20:27:54 -0600

Seen: 596 times

Last updated: Dec 10 '21