Summary

Plugins are essential for extending the capabilities of ROS 2 and other software. ROS 2 supports various types of plugins, including controller plugins, visualization plugins, and rqt plugins. This chapter focused on visualization and rqt plugins, showcasing how to create a custom user interface for a robot and visualize ROS 2 data. Additionally, an example of a Gazebo plugin was presented, demonstrating how to use Gazebo’s features directly in C++ while integrating with the ROS 2 network.

Writing ROS 2 plugins is essential for extending the functionality of robotics systems, as it allows developers to customize and integrate hardware and software components efficiently. Learning to use ROS 2 ensures proficiency in a widely adopted framework, fostering modular development, scalability, and compatibility with cutting-edge robotics tools and technologies. In this chapter, we learned the basic way to develop and integrate plugins in our ROS 2 applications.

This...