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Version: ROS 2 Jazzy

Zenoh ROS Middleware

Zenoh Router​

In early 2025 a new ROS middleware implementation called Zenoh was released. For a detailed description of Zenoh, please refer to Zenoh's design document.

Zenoh is only available on ROS 2 Jazzy and later; it cannot be used on ROS 2 Humble. See the documentation on the system section of the Clearpath configuration YAML to set the middleware to Zenoh.

Automatically starting the Zenoh Router​

By setting the middleware in the system section of the Clearpath configuration file (found in the default Clearpath directory /etc/clearpath/robot.yaml), the Zenoh router start script is added to the generated zenoh-router-start script. This script is ran by the clearpath-zenoh-router service when the clearpath-robot service is started.

Manually starting the Zenoh Router​

Alternatively, if the service is not running or has been manually stopped, manually launch the Zenoh router run

bash -e ~/clearpath/zenoh-router-start

This process can also be daemonized and launched via the systemctl command:

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
sudo systemctl start clearpath-zenoh-router

Communicating with the Zenoh router from a remote computer​

When a user wants to connect a remote computer to communicate with the nodes running on the robot's computer using the Zenoh middleware, the user is recommended to follow these steps on the user's remote computer:

  1. Install the Zenoh ROS Middleware:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install ros-jazzy-rmw-zenoh-cpp
  1. Create an offboard setup folder and copy the robot configuration by following the offboard setup instructions.
  2. Set the Zenoh ROS Middleware in the offboard robot.yaml:
system:
    ros2:
        middleware:
            implementation: rmw_zenoh_cpp

  1. Set the remote computer's Zenoh router endpoint in the offboard robot.yaml under system.bash.env:

    a. Wired Connection: Set the endpoint to the robot's static IP address (192.168.131.1):

    system:
        bash:
            env:
                ZENOH_CONFIG_OVERRIDE: 'mode="client";connect/endpoints=["tcp/192.168.131.1:7447"]'

    b. Wireless Connection: Set the endpoint to the robot's IP address assigned by the Wi-Fi router:

    system:
        bash:
            env:
                ZENOH_CONFIG_OVERRIDE: 'mode="client";connect/endpoints=["tcp/ROBOT_WIFI_IP:7447"]'

  2. Generate and source the offboard setup.bash file:

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
ros2 run clearpath_generator_common generate_bash -s ~/clearpath
source ~/clearpath/setup.bash

  1. Connect the remote computer and robot computer to the same network.

    a. Wired Connection: Connect the remote computer to the robot's ethernet port and set the remote computer's IP address in the range 192.168.131.100 to 192.168.131.255.

    b. Wireless Connection: Connect the robot computer to the same WiFi router as the remote computer. Find the IP address that the WiFi router assigned the robot's computer using the ip a command on a terminal on the robot's computer.

If you switch between wired and wireless networking, update the offboard robot.yaml IP and regenerate setup.bash, or edit ~/clearpath/setup.bash directly.

  1. Then make sure to restart the ROS2 daemon on the remote computer before using command line tools:
ros2 daemon stop
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