EmbodiedData Robotics Inspector v0.3.0

Visualize a ROS 2 project, highlight robotics-specific configuration errors, and compare the system inferred from code with the system actually running.

Prototype capabilities

Code inspection — inferred

• Scans ROS 2 source, package.xml, URDF and Xacro files.
• Highlights invalid robot trees and missing parent or child links.
• Detects publisher/subscriber message-type mismatches.
• Parses controller YAML and cross-checks configured joints against URDF/Xacro.
• Detects joints claimed by multiple controllers.
• Shows inferred packages, nodes, topics, controllers and robot structure.
• Publishes findings as native VS Code diagnostics.

Live inspection — verified

• Reads the active ROS 2 node, topic, service and action graph.
• Reads ros2_control controller status when available.
• Samples /tf and /tf_static and validates expected robot transforms.
• Detects TF children with competing parents.
• Compares topics found in code with the running graph.
• Clearly separates inferred from code from verified at runtime.

Interactive visualizations

• Beginner-first health summary and recommended next action.
• Repeated diagnostics grouped into actionable issue categories.
• Searchable node, topic and controller inventory.
• Focused node explorer that shows only one node and its direct connections.
• Directional arrows distinguish published and subscribed topics.
• Collapsible parent-child TF browser instead of a dense whole-tree graph.
• Runtime data is preferred when connected; static inspection remains available without ROS 2.

The extension runs only fixed, read-only ROS inspection commands. It never executes a suggested repair automatically.

Run the prototype

Requirements:

• VS Code 1.95 or newer
• Node.js 20 or newer
• ROS 2 Jazzy for live inspection; static inspection works without ROS 2

npm install
npm run compile

Open this folder in VS Code and press F5. In the Extension Development Host:

1. Open a ROS 2 workspace.
2. Run EmbodiedData: Open Robotics Inspector from the Command Palette.
3. Select Inspect live ROS 2 after starting ROS 2 nodes.

If VS Code was not launched from a sourced terminal, set:

embodieddata.rosSetupScript = /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash

Package an installable extension

npm run package

This creates an installable .vsix file.

Current boundaries

This is the first technical foundation, not a claim of complete ROS understanding:

• C++ and Python topic extraction is intentionally conservative.
• Dynamic launch behavior cannot always be inferred statically.
• Live results show what was observed at inspection time.
• Dynamic launch behavior cannot always be inferred statically.
• A one-message TF sample can miss transforms that are not published during the inspection window.
• Nav2, MoveIt 2, TF timing, QoS and complete controller-interface validation remain future work.

Product principle

Inspect the code. Observe the robot. Compare what should happen with what actually happens.