ROS2 for HoloLens

hololens-ros2 is a UWP component library written in the C++/WinRT language projection for the Windows Runtime. The goal of this library is to provide interactions with a ROS2 network through a native instance of ROS2 (as opposed to through rosbridge).

The primary motivation is to expose HoloLens data (pose, spatial information, research mode sensor data, etc) to other participants in the ROS2 network.

This repository consists of the following projects:

• HoloLensRos2: The UWP Component Library
• HoloLensRos2Example: A simple C# UWP application demonstrating usage of the HoloLensRos2 component library.

Features

• ROS2 Dashing
• Node class: An implementation of the minimal_publisher demo project

What's Missing?

• Support for publishing HoloLens pose & spatial awareness information
• Support for publishing raw sensor data (via Research Mode)

NOTE: This is not a comprehsensive list of open items. Please see the issue tracker for full details.

Getting Started

Building

This project requires a custom build of ROS2, including various workarounds to accomodate restrictions of UWP containers (env vars, dynamic loading, etc).

TODO: Provide full build instructions for ROS2.

Usage

Consuming the HoloLensRos2 component in your UWP/Unity project is a matter of adding a reference to the generated HoloLensRos2.winmd file and including the necessary ROS2 dlls to the package.

The UWP application's capabilities must be set to enable Internet (Client & Server) as well as Private Networks.

TODO: More explicit, detailed setup instructions are needed.

Related Work

If you're interested in this project, you may also be interested in the following projects:

• ros2_dotnet: aims to bring C#/.NET language support to ROS2.
  • This project is a great option if your goal is to publish/subscribe to artitrary ROS2 topics using standard ROS2 message types.
  • hololens-ros2 has chosen to use C++/WinRT and rclcpp directly in order to take advantage of other existing C++ libraries (such as image_transport)
  • hololens-ros2 is designed to compliment and work alongside ros2_dotnet.
• ros-sharp: provides a C# binding to ROS Networks via the (rosbridge)[http://wiki.ros.org/rosbridge_suite]