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ros2_pulse

  • Software
  • Middleware
  • Tool

A low-overhead probe that measures per-topic message rates and node liveness for ROS 2, covering both inter-process and intra-process traffic, injected via LD_PRELOAD without rebuilding.

Source on GitHub: github.com/TanayK07/ros2_pulse (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit ace0e7c (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 ace0e7c (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.

Commercial use
Yes

What it does

  • Injected with LD_PRELOAD, it intercepts tracetools instrumentation calls so stock ROS 2 binaries need no rebuild or extra privileges.
  • Counts messages in a lock-free hot path and writes rolling per-topic rates to a log file at a configurable interval.
  • Reports intra-process traffic as well as inter-process, which the stock topic statistics tools miss.
  • Optional jitter tracking measures inter-arrival gaps per topic and endpoint.
  • Output can be plain text or JSON Lines, with expected-rate specs that emit warnings on violations.
  • Companion tools include a live terminal dashboard (pulse-top), a bridge that republishes windows on /statistics, and a Prometheus/OTLP exporter (pulse-export).

Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit ace0e7c.

Getting started

Difficulty
Intermediate
Hardware it needs, as the project states it
Stock ROS 2 binaries on Humble, Jazzy or Kilted with a libtracetools.so that has instrumentation compiled in; no GPU or special hardware is stated.

Maintenance

Status
Active: a commit in the last 90 days
Newest commit
16 Oct 2026 on main
Latest release
v0.6.0: rclpy receives, loaned-message counts, tracetools version (14 Oct 2026)

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.