Fast DDS
- Software
- Middleware
- Library
A C++ implementation of the OMG DDS standard and the RTPS protocol for publish-subscribe messaging over unreliable transports such as UDP. It is used as the default middleware for ROS 2.
Made by eProsima, Spain (checked on github.com/eProsima (opens in a new tab)).
Source on GitHub: github.com/eProsima/Fast-DDS (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 980f192 (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 980f192 (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Offers best-effort and reliable publish-subscribe communication policies for real-time applications.
- Provides plug-and-play discovery so new applications are automatically found by other members of the network.
- Supports configurable network behavior and interchangeable transport layers.
- Exposes a high-level publisher-subscriber API and a lower-level writer-reader API that gives direct access to RTPS internals.
- Includes a Docker image with the Shapes Demo, DDS Monitor and example programs for a quick demonstration on Ubuntu.
- Claims Quality Level 1 under the ROS 2 quality guidelines.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 980f192.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Hardware it needs, as the project states it
- Docker is needed to run the quick demo container, which was built for Ubuntu 20.04.
- How to start
- The project's website (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Active: a commit in the last 90 days
- Newest commit
- 14 Oct 2026 on master
- Latest release
- v3.6.2 (2 Jul 2026)
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots on Robotheca that use 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.