Added ROS2 ActionClient support

[danmartzla]

Added the roslibpy.ActionClient object to send actions goals to ROS2-based systems.
This implementation has limited capabilities (related to RobotWebTools/rosbridge_suite#909) such as:

• Goal cancelation is not functional.
• Goal rejection/acceptance are not being notified to the Action client.

What type of change is this?

• Bug fix in a backwards-compatible manner.
• New feature in a backwards-compatible manner.
• Breaking change: bug fix or new feature that involve incompatible API changes.
• Other (e.g. doc update, configuration, etc)

Checklist

• I added a line to the CHANGELOG.rst file in the Unreleased section under the most fitting heading (e.g. Added, Changed, Removed).
• I ran all tests on my computer and it's all green (i.e. invoke test).
• I ran lint on my computer and there are no errors (i.e. invoke check).
• I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works.
• I have added necessary documentation (if appropriate)

[sea-bass]

This all looks great to me -- just a few minor formatting things and I think this V1 support will be a great addition. Thank you!

[danmartzla]

This all looks great to me -- just a few minor formatting things and I think this V1 support will be a great addition. Thank you!

Hi! I already fixed your suggested minor changes. Thanks.

[sea-bass]

Sorry, but I'm not a maintainer of this repo so I can't actually approve your changes. I was just looking because I implemented the rosbridge side of this work.

[sea-bass]

Sorry @danmartzla, I forgot to mention that I recently landed a small change to the protocol that allows for cleaner action cancellation. It may require a small change since now the action_result message also contains a status field telling you whether the action was successful, canceled, aborted, etc.: RobotWebTools/rosbridge_suite#953

Also @gonzalocasas Would you be able to review this PR?

[danmartzla]

I've adapted this minor change to work with the latest rosbridge_suite updates.

However, sending a cancelation request from a roslibpy "Action Client" seems not to be working. The "rosbridge_server" debug logs do not report any cancelation request (or any other received message). The JSON message seems to be correct based on the documentation:

https://github.com/danmartzla/roslibpy/blob/bcd403c12f32da1118a6c71d84602a237592bf72/src/roslibpy/core.py#L598-L604

[sea-bass]

It does look right... I wonder if you need the send_action_goals_in_new_thread parameter in the server set to True for this to work?

[danmartzla]

It does look right... I wonder if you need the send_action_goals_in_new_thread parameter in the server set to True for this to work?

OK. I was totally unaware about this parameter of the "rosbridge_server". I can confirm that it is working well when launching the server this way:
ros2 launch rosbridge_server rosbridge_websocket_launch.xml send_action_goals_in_new_thread:="true"

I'm adding this as a comment in the example code : https://github.com/danmartzla/roslibpy/blob/13ae184e691f3024c15bcc1e6a3f857c89affb65/docs/files/ros2-action-client.py#L41-L42

[sea-bass]

Awesome, great to hear!

There is also an equivalent call_services_in_new_thread which allows multiple service calls to be processed concurrently.

Not necessary for this example, of course, but just noting.

[sea-bass]

@gonzalocasas this has been around a while and seems to work well. Please consider merging this great contribution.

[yuriyfedyuk]

@danmartzla First of all thank you for such great feature. During the testing we faced the same issue that you had, we are not able to cancel action. We use ROS2 humble and we build rosbridge and roslibpy from the latest sources.
Here is how we launch rosbridge server
root@9db9713f3160:/opt/ros_ws# ros2 launch rosbridge_server rosbridge_websocket_launch.xml send_action_goals_in_new_thread:=true [INFO] [launch]: All log files can be found below /root/.ros/log/2025-02-01-19-31-13-527917-9db9713f3160-34804 [INFO] [launch]: Default logging verbosity is set to INFO [INFO] [rosbridge_websocket-1]: process started with pid [34805] [INFO] [rosapi_node-2]: process started with pid [34807] [rosbridge_websocket-1] [WARN] [1738438274.037011958] [rosbridge_websocket]: The 'default_call_service_timeout' parameter is currently set to 0.0, which means service calls will block indefinitely if no response is received. Please note that in the Jazzy and later releases, the default value for this parameter will be updated to 5.0 seconds. [rosbridge_websocket-1] [WARN] [1738438274.037679806] [rosbridge_websocket]: The 'call_services_in_new_thread' parameter is currently set to False, which means service calls will block the main thread. Please note that in the Jazzy and later releases, the default value for this parameter will be updated to True. [rosbridge_websocket-1] [INFO] [1738438274.040429291] [rosbridge_websocket]: Rosbridge WebSocket server started on port 9090

@danmartzla @sea-bass Could you please describe your environment? do you use humble or newest version?

[yuriyfedyuk]

Yes, I’m running the command, so this is strange to me why I can see this issue. ros2 launch rosbridge_server rosbridge_websocket_launch.xml send_action_goals_in_new_thread:=trueI can confirm that without flag I see the warning in the log related to action goals2 лют. 2025 р. о 15:50 Sebastian Castro ***@***.***> пише: @yuriyfedyuk did you try this? #125 (comment) In the latest version of rosbridge you even get a warning in the logger about this, as is included in your question. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[sea-bass]

@yuriyfedyuk Asking just in case, but is the action server that you're communicating to via rosbridge capable of handling cancellations? If it is not, then sending a cancel message via rosbridge will do nothing.

Have you tried with e.g., this server?
https://github.com/ros2/examples/blob/rolling/rclpy/actions/minimal_action_server/examples_rclpy_minimal_action_server/server_single_goal.py

[yuriyfedyuk]

Thank you, that was the case. I've used default fibonacci action server, and I wasn't aware that it can't be cancelled. Using action server from your link did the trick and action can be cancelled. We will continue testing, and looking forward to have it merged пн, 3 лют. 2025 р. о 06:14 Sebastian Castro ***@***.***> пише:

…

@yuriyfedyuk <https://github.com/yuriyfedyuk> Asking just in case, but is the action server that you're communicating to via rosbridge capable of handling cancellations? If it is not, then sending a cancel message via rosbridge will do nothing. Have you tried with e.g., this server? https://github.com/ros2/examples/blob/rolling/rclpy/actions/minimal_action_server/examples_rclpy_minimal_action_server/server_single_goal.py — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#125 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABDCLHXGVWRSUP5O3R4QYBT2N3ULZAVCNFSM6AAAAABKEBJ4JCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDMMRZHA3DQOBZGY> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- З повагою, Юрій Федюк

[danmartzla]

Hi all,

It has been quite a while since I first opened this PR. Is it possible that the owner has abandoned this repo?

[tetov]

I'm looking into this as well and sent a message to @gonzalocasas to make him aware of this PR. :)

[gonzalocasas]

It has been quite a while since I first opened this PR. Is it possible that the owner has abandoned this repo?

Sorry the massive delay, the repo is definitely not abandoned, I just had a lot on my plate for a while. Will review and we can probably merge very soon

[sea-bass]

Sorry the massive delay, the repo is definitely not abandoned, I just had a lot on my plate for a while. Will review and we can probably merge very soon

Bump. This issue was raised again 3 weeks ago on the rosbridge_suite repo, and I just pointed them to this branch

[EzraBrooks]

@gonzalocasas Bump again! If you need any support on this, I have some time I can contribute.

[EzraBrooks]

Hi @gonzalocasas, pinging again.

I really appreciate your work maintaining this library, but without ROS 2 Action support it's pretty limited. Even ROS# has Actions support now.

@bjsowa @sea-bass If this repository is stuck, how would you feel about forking into RobotWebTools to cohabitate with rosbridge and roslibjs?

[bjsowa]

@bjsowa @sea-bass If this repository is stuck, how would you feel about forking into RobotWebTools to cohabitate with rosbridge and roslibjs?

I think moving this to the RWT organization would be a great idea. That said, forking the repo would unfortunately lose the history of PRs and issues, which isn't ideal. A better option would be to transfer the repository-assuming @gonzalocasas is open to it.

Also, I’m not yet a member of the RobotWebTools organization-would appreciate an invite!

[gonzalocasas]

If a transfer to the RWT org would be a possibility, I'd be totally up for it!

[sea-bass]

This plan sounds like a great idea!

@MatthijsBurgh would you have the power to transfer the repo and add @bjsowa (who has been maintaining rosbridge and web_video_server) as an org member?

[MatthijsBurgh]

Which repo? As this is a PR from one repo to another one?

I have added @bjsowa to the organization. The teams are a mess, so we might need to update them later on.

[bjsowa]

Which repo? As this is a PR from one repo to another one?

I have added @bjsowa to the organization. The teams are a mess, so we might need to update them later on.

This one, not the fork.

To transfer a repository to an organization, you need admin access to the repo and ability to create repositories in the organization. The easiest way would be probably to add @gonzalocasas to the organization and let them handle the transfer.

[MatthijsBurgh]

To what repos does @gonzalocasas need access to on top of the permissions to migrate the repo?

[bjsowa]

To what repos does @gonzalocasas need access to on top of the permissions to migrate the repo?

For the transfer just the "Create repository" permission is needed.

[MatthijsBurgh]

Is enabled for now

[MatthijsBurgh]

@gonzalocasas You have been invited to the RobotWebTools organization. Please accept the invitation and migrate the repository

[gonzalocasas]

Done!

[sea-bass]

Oh hey, my approval counts now!

EDIT: It seems like the changelog verification PR needs a repo secret transfered over for auth to work properly... or rather, we should make a new one.

[EzraBrooks]

Thanks y'all! Glad we could get this across the finish line!

[zugaldia]

Are there any plans to issue a new release that includes this change? Looks like the latest release is from January.

[gonzalocasas]

@zugaldia yes, but I'd like to get this PR #143 merged before cutting a new release, which would be roslibpy 2.0