How do you document your ROS hardware interface?

1 Why document your hardware interface?

Documenting your hardware interface is important for several reasons. First, it helps you to organize and maintain your code, as well as to debug and test your hardware. Second, it enables other ROS users and developers to reuse your hardware interface or integrate it with other ROS packages. Third, it contributes to the ROS community by providing valuable information and resources for robot hardware development and integration.

2 What to document in your hardware interface?

Your hardware interface documentation should provide a comprehensive overview of your robot hardware, its components, features, and specifications. It should also include a diagram or schematic of the hardware architecture, showing how the components are connected to the ROS system. Furthermore, you should list the ROS nodes running on your hardware, their names, namespaces, and functionalities. Additionally, a table should be included that details the ROS topics that your hardware publishes and subscribes to, their names, types, and meanings. Moreover, there should be a table with information about the ROS services that your hardware provides and calls, their names, types, and meanings. Additionally, you should also include a table about the ROS parameters that your hardware uses and sets, their names, types, defaults, and meanings. Lastly, a table about the ROS actions that your hardware supports and executes is necessary with information about their names, types, and meanings. Lastly, you must provide a description of how to install, configure, launch, and use your hardware interface with any dependencies or prerequisites included.

3 How to document your hardware interface?

There are several tools and conventions available for documenting hardware interfaces in a consistent and structured way. ROS wiki is the official documentation platform for ROS, where users can create a page for their hardware interface package and use the standard templates and macros to format the documentation. Additionally, Doxygen can be used to generate documentation from source code comments, while Sphinx can generate documentation from reStructuredText files in a more flexible and customizable way than the ROS wiki. Furthermore, both Doxygen and Sphinx can be integrated with the ROS wiki using specific packages.

4 Best practices for documenting your hardware interface

To ensure that your hardware interface documentation is clear, accurate, and useful, you should follow some best practices. Use descriptive and consistent names for your hardware interface elements, following the ROS naming conventions. Provide enough information and examples to explain the purpose and functionality of your hardware interface elements, without unnecessary details or repetitions. Utilize diagrams, tables, and code blocks to illustrate and organize your hardware interface elements, using the ROS wiki, Doxygen, or Sphinx syntax and style. Moreover, update your hardware interface documentation regularly when changes or features are added. Lastly, review your hardware interface documentation for errors, typos, or inconsistencies and ask for feedback from other ROS users or developers.

5 Resources for documenting your hardware interface

If you're looking to learn more about documenting your hardware interface, there are a few resources available. The ROS wiki documentation guidelines provide instructions and examples on how to use the ROS wiki templates and macros. For source code comments, the Doxygen manual can be used to generate documentation. Additionally, Sphinx documentation provides instructions and examples on how to document reStructuredText files. Furthermore, the ROS tutorials provide tutorials and examples on creating, building, and documenting ROS packages, nodes, topics, services, parameters, and actions. Finally, ROS answers provide a forum where you can ask and answer questions related to ROS documentation and other topics.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?