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This page assumes knowledge of ROS.

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Configure your catkin workspace for custom messages

Before configuring a custom ROS message, you'll have to provide the Formant agent with the path to your catkin workspace. For more information, see Environment variables for the Formant Agent.

This guide will teach you how to ingest ROS topic data directly into Formant.

Step 1: Create the ROS topic stream

1. In Formant, in the upper-left corner, open the menu and click Settings.
2. Click Devices, and then click on the device you want to configure.
3. Click the Telemetry tab, and then click Add Stream.
4. Click ROS Topic. This will open the New ROS Topic Stream configuration window:

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Supported formats for streaming video using sensor_msgs/Image messages

For a sensor_msgs/Image topic to be a valid input to Formant's automatic video encoding, it must have a value for the encoding field that matches one of the following exactly:

• rgb8
• rgba8
• bgr8
• bgra8
• mono8
• mono16
• 8UC1
• yuv422

If your encoding value is unsupported, you may be able to adjust the encoding field of the sensor_msgs/Image message without changing the underlying data. In some cases, you will need to transform both the data and the encoding property to supported values.

If you have trouble with this, please contact our Customer Success team via the Intercom messenger in the bottom-right corner of this page, or via email at [email protected].

5. When you're finished configuring your stream, click Done, and then Save. Finally, Save your device settings.

Step 2: Add stream to a view

Once you've added a stream to your device, your next step is to add it to a view in Formant.

Add the streams you want to visualize, and then move on to Viewing data in Formant.

Adding multiple ROS topics to the same module

You can add multiple ROS topics of the same data type to the same module.

In the New ROS Topic Stream window seen above, you can click the Add ROS Topic button multiple times to add multiple streams.

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When adding multiple topics to the same stream, you must provide a unique set of tags for each topic.

ROS topic type vs. Formant data type

The table below shows a mapping from ROS topic type to Formant datapoint type:

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If you notice an issue with this page or need help, please reach out to us! Use the 'Did this page help you?' buttons below, or get in contact with our Customer Success team via the Intercom messenger in the bottom-right corner of this page, or at [email protected].