robot_state_publisher

ROS package that reads a URDF and joint angles, then publishes each link's coordinate transform.

robot_state_publisher is a fundamental package in both ROS and ROS 2. It reads a robot's URDF model (via the robot_description parameter), subscribes to joint angles on the /joint_states topic, runs forward kinematics, and publishes the pose of each link relative to its parent onto the TF transform tree. With it in place, RViz can draw the robot's current pose, and other nodes can query things like “where is the gripper relative to the base.” Its usual companion, joint_state_publisher, is responsible for publishing the joint angles themselves: without a real robot connected, its GUI version lets you drag sliders to set joint angles by hand, which is convenient for checking a model.

ExampleAfter writing a robot arm's URDF, launch robot_state_publisher, joint_state_publisher_gui, and RViz together, and dragging the sliders will visibly move each joint of the model.

Also called

joint_state_publisher

Related

TF / tf2 Transform Tree · Unified Robot Description Format · RViz / RViz2 · Forward Kinematics (FK) · Robot Operating System 2 · Topic (ROS)

Sources

robot_state_publisher on GitHub
ROS Wiki: robot_state_publisher