About this book:

*Robotics Software Engineering with ROS 2* is a comprehensive guide to building production-grade autonomous systems using modern software engineering practices. Moving beyond basic tutorials, the book frames ROS 2 as a professional platform for developing scalable, maintainable, and reliable robot applications. It covers the entire development lifecycle, from foundational concepts like nodes, topics, and the DDS middleware to advanced architectural patterns such as node composition, lifecycle management, and the design of robust message interfaces.

The middle chapters focus on the "nervous system" of the robot, detailing real-time control loops, hardware abstraction via *ros2_control*, and spatial awareness through the *tf2* transform library. The book places significant emphasis on the Navigation2 and MoveIt 2 stacks, explaining how to coordinate complex mobile and manipulative behaviors using behavior trees. It also addresses the critical "non-functional" requirements of robotics, providing deep dives into Quality of Service (QoS) tuning, latency budgeting, and security hardening using SROS 2 to protect distributed systems from vulnerability.

A central theme of the text is that quality must be engineered rather than inspected. To this end, it provides extensive workflows for simulation in Gazebo and the implementation of a multi-tiered testing strategy encompassing unit, integration, system, and launch tests. These methodologies are integrated into a broader discussion on Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), showing how to use Docker and automated pipelines to ensure that software remains stable as it evolves across different ROS 2 distributions.

Finally, the book addresses the practicalities of long-term deployment and fleet management. It covers data telemetry with *rosbag2* for post-mission forensics and provides strategic advice for migrating legacy ROS 1 systems to ROS 2. By combining theoretical middleware mechanics with industry case studies, the book equips engineers with the judgment necessary to navigate the trade-offs between performance, safety, and complexity in real-world robotics.

What You'll Find Inside:

• Master ROS 2 fundamentals: nodes, topics, services, actions, and the DDS middleware for reliable and scalable robot communication.
• Apply architectural patterns like composition, lifecycle nodes, and executors to manage system complexity and achieve deterministic real-time control.
• Implement robust configuration, logging, diagnostics, and observability practices to maintain and monitor robot systems effectively.
• Integrate hardware and sensors using ros2_control and driver frameworks while ensuring real-time performance and safety.
• Build testable systems with comprehensive testing strategies, CI/CD pipelines, and simulation workflows for reliable deployment.

Who's It For:

This book is designed for software engineers, roboticists, and technical leads who are responsible for developing and deploying reliable robot applications in research, startup, or industrial settings. Readers should be comfortable with modern software development practices and have experience with either C++ or Python, as the book focuses on ROS 2 best practices for building scalable, maintainable, and production-grade robotic systems.