bob_launch
- Software
- Middleware
- Tool
A meta-launcher for ROS 2 that builds and starts whole robot graphs from YAML or JSON config files, without hand-written Python launch files.
Source on GitHub: github.com/bob-ros2/bob_launch (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit b3a07fc (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- Apache-2.0 (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (Apache-2.0) at commit b3a07fc (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Spawns nodes or includes other launch files according to an external configuration.
- Can launch from a config file, a global parameter file, or a string piped in on standard input.
- Can merge several config fragments into one pipe to compose system layers.
- Resolves package share directory placeholders in parameters and arguments.
- Substitutes shell-style environment variables in configuration fields, with defaults.
- Can shut down the whole launch tree when a critical node exits, useful in Docker or CI.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit b3a07fc.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- How to start
- The project's README (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Maintained: a commit in the last 12 months
- Newest commit
- 28 Mar 2026 on main
- Latest release
- None published on GitHub
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots that can run it
No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.
Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.