ROS 2 Publisher/Subscriber Skill

Purpose: Generate accurate, educational ROS 2 publisher and subscriber code following official ROS 2 Humble patterns for the Physical AI textbook.

When to Use

• Creating lessons in Chapter 4 (Your First ROS 2 Code)
• Writing publisher/subscriber exercises for any ROS 2 content
• Generating worked examples that demonstrate topic-based communication
• Creating Tier 1 cloud-compatible code examples

Live Documentation Access

CRITICAL: Before generating any code, fetch current ROS 2 documentation using Context7 MCP:

Tool: mcp__context7__resolve-library-id
libraryName: "ros2 rclpy"

Then:
Tool: mcp__context7__get-library-docs
context7CompatibleLibraryID: [resolved ID]
topic: "publisher subscriber"

This ensures code matches current ROS 2 Humble API.

Code Generation Principles

Publisher Pattern (Canonical)

import rclpy
from rclpy.node import Node
from std_msgs.msg import String

class MinimalPublisher(Node):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__('minimal_publisher')
        self.publisher_ = self.create_publisher(String, 'topic', 10)
        timer_period = 0.5  # seconds
        self.timer = self.create_timer(timer_period, self.timer_callback)
        self.i = 0

    def timer_callback(self):
        msg = String()
        msg.data = f'Hello World: {self.i}'
        self.publisher_.publish(msg)
        self.get_logger().info(f'Publishing: "{msg.data}"')
        self.i += 1

def main(args=None):
    rclpy.init(args=args)
    minimal_publisher = MinimalPublisher()
    rclpy.spin(minimal_publisher)
    minimal_publisher.destroy_node()
    rclpy.shutdown()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Subscriber Pattern (Canonical)

import rclpy
from rclpy.node import Node
from std_msgs.msg import String

class MinimalSubscriber(Node):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__('minimal_subscriber')
        self.subscription = self.create_subscription(
            String,
            'topic',
            self.listener_callback,
            10)
        self.subscription  # prevent unused variable warning

    def listener_callback(self, msg):
        self.get_logger().info(f'I heard: "{msg.data}"')

def main(args=None):
    rclpy.init(args=args)
    minimal_subscriber = MinimalSubscriber()
    rclpy.spin(minimal_subscriber)
    minimal_subscriber.destroy_node()
    rclpy.shutdown()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Educational Requirements

Layer 1 (Manual Foundation)

• Explain node lifecycle (init → spin → shutdown)
• Diagram topic-based communication flow
• Explain QoS basics (queue depth = 10)

Layer 2 (AI Collaboration)

• Prompt templates for extending nodes
• Error diagnosis with AI assistance
• Refactoring suggestions (Three Roles INVISIBLE)

Layer 3 (Intelligence Design)

• When patterns should become reusable
• Node composition strategies
• Configuration via parameters (links to ros2-launch-system skill)

Hardware Tier Compatibility

All code MUST work on:

• Tier 1: Cloud ROS 2 (TheConstruct) or MockROS in browser
• Tier 2+: Local ROS 2 Humble installation

Include cloud setup instructions:

# Cloud ROS 2 (TheConstruct)
source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
cd ~/ros2_ws && colcon build
source install/setup.bash

Common Mistakes to Prevent

1. Missing spin(): Node won't process callbacks without rclpy.spin()
2. Wrong message type import: Always match import to actual message type
3. No cleanup: Always call destroy_node() and shutdown()
4. Timer not stored: Timer needs reference to prevent garbage collection

Integration with Other Skills

• ros2-custom-interfaces: When custom message types needed
• ros2-launch-system: When launching multiple pub/sub nodes
• lesson-generator: For full lesson structure around examples

Authoritative Source

All patterns verified against: https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Tutorials/Beginner-Client-Libraries/Writing-A-Simple-Py-Publisher-And-Subscriber.html