Increasing buffer size on ROS

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Increasing the buffer size in ROS (Robot Operating System) can help manage larger amounts of data and prevent loss of messages when dealing with high-throughput topics. This can be accomplished by adjusting the buffer size parameter in the subscriber's setup, allowing the system to handle more data before overwriting old messages.

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In ROS, increasing the buffer size can refer to several aspects like publisher/subscriber queue size, network buffer size, or log file size. Here's a guide on how to increase these various buffer sizes:

1. Publisher/Subscriber Queue Size

Adjusting the publisher/subscriber queue size can help ensure that messages are not dropped due to overflow.

ROS1

Publisher Example:

import rospy from std_msgs.msg import String

pub = rospy.Publisher('chatter', String, queue_size=100)

# Increase queue size to 100

Subscriber Example:

import rospy from std_msgs.msg

import String

def callback(data):

rospy.loginfo(rospy.get_caller_id() + "I heard %s", data.data) rospy.init_node('listener', anonymous=True)

rospy.Subscriber('chatter', String, callback, queue_size=100)

# Increase queue size to 100

ROS2

In ROS2, the buffer size is controlled through the history and depth Quality of Service (QoS) settings.

Publisher Example:

# Python (ROS2)

import rclpy from rclpy.node

import Node from std_msgs.msg

import String from rclpy.qos

import QoSProfile, QoSDurabilityPolicy, QoSHistoryPolicy

class PublisherNode(Node):

def __init__(self):

super().__init__('publisher_node')

qos_profile = QoSProfile(

history=QoSHistoryPolicy.KEEP_LAST,

depth=100, # Increase depth

durability=QoSDurabilityPolicy.TRANSIENT_LOCAL

)

self.publisher = self.create_publisher(String, 'chatter', qos_profile)

rclpy.init()

node = PublisherNode()

Subscriber Example:

# Python (ROS2)

import rclpy from rclpy.node

import Node from std_msgs.msg

import String from rclpy.qos

import QoSProfile, QoSDurabilityPolicy, QoSHistoryPolicy

class SubscriberNode(Node):

def __init__(self):

super().__init__('subscriber_node')

qos_profile = QoSProfile(

history=QoSHistoryPolicy.KEEP_LAST,

depth=100, # Increase depth

durability=QoSDurabilityPolicy.TRANSIENT_LOCAL

)

self.subscription = self.create_subscription(String, 'chatter', self.callback, qos_profile)

def callback(self, msg):

self.get_logger().info('Received message: "%s"' % msg.data)

rclpy.init()

node = SubscriberNode()

2. Network Buffer Size

Increasing network buffer size can help in environments with high network latency. Steps as follow:

Open the socket options file with elevated permissions:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Add the following lines at the end to increase the TCP buffer sizes:

net.core.rmem_max = 16777216

net.core.wmem_max = 16777216

net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 16777216

net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 65536 16777216

Apply the changes:

sudo sysctl -p

3. Log File Size

If you want to increase the maximum log file size:

Open the ROS log settings file (or create one):

mkdir -p ~/.ros

nano ~/.ros/rosconsole.config

Add or modify the following lines to adjust the log size:

log4j.logger.ros=INFO, A1

log4j.appender.A1.MaxFileSize=100MB # Adjust the file size

log4j.appender.A1.MaxBackupIndex=10

log4j.appender.A1.File=${user.home}/.ros/log/latest/ros.log

These steps should help you increase the buffer sizes for different components in ROS.

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