custom_action.md

Custom Action Creation

Messages

Create a action folder inside session4_action folder

mkdir -p ~/ros_workspace/src/session4_action/action

Open the folder

cd ~/ros_workspace/src/session4_action/action

Create a .action file with desired name. (we will select custom.action as an example)

code custom.action

Inside the file add following lines, then save and close.

#goal definition
int32 order
---
#result definition
int32[] sequence
---
#feedback
int32[] sequence

Open package.xml and add the following lines in the respective sections

<build_depend>actionlib_msgs</build_depend>
<build_export_depend>actionlib_msgs</build_export_depend>
<exec_depend>actionlib_msgs</exec_depend>
<exec_depend>message_generation</exec_depend>

Open the CMakeLists.txt and add following lines to respective section,

actionlib_msgs to find_package()

find_package(catkin REQUIRED COMPONENTS
   roscpp
   rospy
   std_msgs
   actionlib_msgs
)

actionlib_msgs to catkin_package

catkin_package(
  ...
  CATKIN_DEPENDS actionlib_msgs ...
  ...)

uncomment add_action_files section and add custom.action file

add_action_files(DIRECTORY 
  action
  FILES
  custom.action
)

uncomment generate_messgae() section and add actionlib_msgs. It shoul look like this,

generate_messages(
  DEPENDENCIES
  std_msgs
  actionlib_msgs
)