Managing ROS Parameters

Viewing and Configuring ROS Parameters

OpenMower is built on ROS, which means much of its behavior is controlled through parameters. Understanding how to inspect and modify these parameters gives you fine-grained control over your mower’s operation.

Listing All Parameters

To see all currently active ROS parameters, open the OpenMower shell:

openmower shell

Then run:

rosparam list

This will display a full list of parameters currently loaded in the system. It’s a useful first step when debugging or trying to understand how your mower is configured.

Overwriting Parameters

All parameters can be customized using the mower_params.yaml configuration file. This file acts as the central place to override default values.

The easiest way to edit it is with:

openmower configure ros

Example

In this example we will be overwriting the speed parameter.

1. Fetch the Parameter’s current value

After discovering a parameter you want to edit using rosparam list, you can get the value using rosparam get <parameter>:

🚜 openmower@openmower-v2:~$ rosparam get /move_base_flex/FTCPlanner/speed_fast
0.4

In this case, our speed is currently at 0.4 m/sec for mowing

2. Change the value for your config

On the host system call openmower configure ros and translate the parameter name to YAML. This is done by replacing each / into indentations (2x space).

For our example it looks like this:

move_base_flex:
  FTCPlanner:
    speed_fast: 0.5

3. Save the file and check the updated value

After saving the file, ROS is automatically restarted and you can check, if the value is now updated:

🚜 openmower@openmower-v2:~$ rosparam get /move_base_flex/FTCPlanner/speed_fast
0.5

🎉 Done!

If you have issues

If some parameter isn’t overriding correctly, make sure you are on the latest version of OpenMower. If it still doesn’t work ask on Discord.