rosy 0.8.3
It's not ROS, but it is ROS-y! Simple, fast inter-process message passing for distributed Python processes
License: MIT
Requires Python: <4,>=3.10

# rosy 🌹

> It's not ROS... but it *is* ROS-y!

`rosy`, inspired by [ROS (Robot Operating System)](https://www.ros.org/), provides simple and fast inter-process message passing for distributed Python processes, or "nodes".

`rosy` allows sending messages between nodes in two different ways:
1. **Topics**: Unidirectional, "fire and forget" messages that are sent from a node to all nodes listening to that topic.
2. **Services**: Bidirectional, request-response messages that allow a node to get a response from any node hosting the service.

Messages can contain any Python data that is serializable by `pickle` (default), `json`, or `msgpack`. Alternatively, you can even provide your own custom codec.

Nodes can...
- Run on a single machine, or be distributed across multiple machines on a local network.
- Automatically discover each other using the [Zeroconf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeroconf) protocol.
- Automatically reconnect to each other if they lose connection.

`rosy` also has simple load balancing: if multiple nodes of the same name are listening to a topic, then messages will be sent to them in a round-robin fashion. (The load balancing strategy can be changed or disabled if desired.)

## Show me the code!

Here are some simplified examples. See the linked files for the full code.

### Example: Sending messages using Topics

[rosy/demo/**topic_sender.py**](src/rosy/demo/topic_sender.py):

```python
import rosy

async def main():
    async with await rosy.build_node(name="topic_sender") as node:
        await node.send("some-topic", "hello", name="world")
```

[rosy/demo/**topic_listener.py**](src/rosy/demo/topic_listener.py):

```python
import rosy

async def main():
    async with await rosy.build_node(name="topic_listener") as node:
        await node.listen("some-topic", callback)
        await node.forever()

async def callback(topic, message, name=None):
    print(f'Received "{message} {name}" on topic={topic}')
```

**Terminal:**

```bash
# Terminal 1
$ python -m rosy.demo.topic_listener
Listening...

# Terminal 2
$ python -m rosy.demo.topic_sender

# Terminal 1
Received "hello world" on topic=some-topic
```

### Example: Calling Services

[rosy/demo/**service_caller.py**](src/rosy/demo/service_caller.py):

```python
import rosy

async def main():
    async with await rosy.build_node(name="service_caller") as node:
        print("Calculating 2 * 2...")
        result = await node.call("multiply", 2, 2)
        print(f"Result: {result}")
```

[rosy/demo/**service_provider.py**](src/rosy/demo/service_provider.py):

```python
import rosy

async def main():
    async with await rosy.build_node(name="service_provider") as node:
        await node.add_service("multiply", multiply)
        await node.forever()

async def multiply(service, a, b):
    return a * b
```

**Terminal:**

```bash
# Terminal 1
$ python -m rosy.demo.service_provider
Started service...

# Terminal 2
$ python -m rosy.demo.service_caller
Calculating 2 * 2...
Result: 4
```

## Installation

```bash
pip install rosy
```

## Commands

These commands mirror the [`ros2` ROS commands](https://docs.ros.org/en/rolling/Concepts/Basic/About-Command-Line-Tools.html). Use the `--help` flag on any command to see all options.

### `$ rosy`

Display help for all commands.

### `$ rosy node list`

List all nodes in the mesh, what topics they are listening to, and what services they are providing.

### `$ rosy topic {list,echo,send}`

List all topics, echo messages from a topic, or send a message to a topic.

### `$ rosy service {list,call}`

List all services, or call a service.

### `$ rosy launch [config]`

Launch several nodes all at once. `config` defaults to `launch.yaml`. Check out the [template `launch.yaml`](launch.yaml) for all options, or the [demo `launch.yaml`](src/rosy/demo/launch.yaml) for a runnable example.

### `$ rosy bag {record,play,info}`

Tool for recording and playing back messages. The options are:

- `record <topics>`: Record messages on the given topic(s) to a file. By default, a file named `record_<datetime>.bag` will be created in the current directory.
- `play`: Play back messages from a bag file, with the same timing between messages as when they were recorded. By default, the most recent bag file in the current directory will be played back.
- `info`: Print information about a bag file. By default, the most recent bag file in the current directory will be used.

### `$ rosy speedtest {send,recv}`

Performs a speed test sending and receiving topic messages.

Some results:

| Hardware    | Message size | Messages/s | Latency (ms) | Bandwidth (MB/s) |
|-------------|--------------|------------|--------------|------------------|
| Laptop*     | 0            | 116000     | 0.023        | N/A              |
| Laptop*     | 1 kB         | 115000     | 0.028        | 115              |
| Laptop*     | 1 MB         | 1300       | 1.2          | 1300             |
| Orin Nano** | 0            | 29000      | 0.13         | N/A              |
| Orin Nano** | 1 kB         | 28000      | 0.15         | 28               |
| Orin Nano** | 1 MB         | 363        | 3.6          | 363              |

\* Dell XPS 17 9730 with an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU and 64 GB DDR5 RAM running Ubuntu 24.04 and Python 3.10.\
\** [NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/jetson-orin/nano-super-developer-kit/)
running Ubuntu 22.04 and Python 3.13.

## What is a mesh?

A mesh is a collection of "nodes" that can send messages to each other. A message can be any Python object. There is one node per Python process, with nodes potentially distributed across multiple machines. Each node listens to specific message "topics", and calls listener callbacks when messages are received on those topics. Each node can send messages to any topic, and the message will be sent to all listening nodes.

### How does it work?

The nodes use the [Zeroconf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeroconf) protocol to discover each other and share their supported connection specifications, topics they are listening to, and services they are providing. Each node maintains the current "mesh topology" of all other nodes in the mesh.

When a node needs to send a message, it uses the mesh topology to find all currently listening nodes, connects to them, and sends the message.

### Domain IDs

Nodes will only form a mesh and communicate with other nodes sharing the same "domain ID". The default domain ID is "default".

If you want to have multiple, independent meshes on the same network (e.g. you have multiple robots), you can use a different domain ID for each mesh. Here are some examples:

```python
await rosy.build_node(..., domain_id="my-domain")
```

```bash
# The rosy CLI has a dedicated argument
$ rosy --domain-id my-domain ...
```

```bash
# Or you can set the ROSY_DOMAIN_ID environment variable
$ ROSY_DOMAIN_ID=my-domain rosy ...
```

### Guarantees

`rosy` only guarantees that topic messages and service requests will be received in the order in which they were sent from a *single* node. It is possible for messages sent from different nodes to be received out of order.

It does **not** guarantee topic message delivery; there are no delivery confirmations, and if a message fails to be sent to a node (e.g. due to network failure), it will not be retried.

### Security

Security is not a primary concern of `rosy`. Messages are sent unencrypted for speed and simplicity, and there is no authentication of nodes on the mesh.