Actuate 2024 | Chris Lalancette | Zenoh and ROS 2: Not a Paradox

ROS 2 is a middleware based on a strongly-typed, anonymous publish/subscribe mechanism that allows for message passing between different processes. Since its inception, ROS 2 has used the industry standard DDS as the way to deliver messages both on the same computer, and on the wire to different computers. While DDS has worked for our users, it can be complex to properly configure and understand, and it has a number of shortcomings. To simplify deployment and debugging, the ROS 2 core team has spent a good part of the last year integrating Zenoh into ROS 2. Zenoh is a newer protocol built by some long-time DDS developers, which aims to simplify deployment of networking systems, both locally and across the larger internet. The integration of Zenoh shows great promise as a simpler way for users to configure and use ROS 2.