3 Must-Have Tools for Every ROS 2 Robotics Engineer
Whether you're just getting started with ROS 2 or deep into developing complex robotic systems, having the right tools in your kit can significantly improve your productivity and debugging efficiency. In this post, we’ll explore three essential tools that every ROS 2 robotics engineer should use!
The 3 tools we will explore in this post are :
- Terminator Terminal
- RQt and its core plugins
- Webots Simulator
1️⃣ Terminator Terminal: Supercharge Your Terminal Workflow
✅ Why It's Useful:
ROS 2 nodes and tools are often launched in separate terminals. Constantly opening new tabs and arranging windows can be a hassle. Terminator simplifies this with split screens, tabs, and simultaneous command broadcasting.
💡 Key Features:
- Multiple terminals in a single window (horizontal/vertical splits)
- Broadcast input to multiple terminals
- Save layouts for repeat use
- Right-click context menus for easy use
🔧 Installation (Ubuntu/Debian-based):
sudo apt update
sudo apt install terminator
🚀 How to Use:
Launch it with the command:
terminator
Right-click to split terminal vertically or horizontally. Save your layout for future sessions (useful for launching multiple ROS 2 nodes together).
2️⃣ RQt Tools: Visualize & Debug Your ROS 2 System
✅ Why It's Useful
RQt is a Qt-based framework for GUI plugins in ROS. It allows you to monitor topics, messages, parameters, and node connections—crucial for debugging large robotics systems.
📦 Popular Plugins:
- rqt_graph: Visualizes how ROS 2 nodes communicate.
- rqt_plot: Plots numeric topic data in real time.
- rqt_console: Displays logs with filtering.
- rqt_reconfigure: Dynamically change parameters.
- rqt_topic: Inspect and publish to topics.
🛠️ Installation for ROS 2 Humble:
Install the base and commonly used plugins:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install \
ros-humble-rqt \
ros-humble-rqt-common-plugins \
ros-humble-rqt-graph \
ros-humble-rqt-plot \
ros-humble-rqt-reconfigure \
ros-humble-rqt-console
🧪 Launch RQt using terminal command:
rqt
From the GUI, load desired plugins from the Plugins menu.
3️⃣ Webots Simulator: A Powerful Robot Simulation Environment
✅ Why It's Useful
Webots is a versatile open-source simulator with high-quality physics, realistic visuals, and built-in support for ROS 2. It supports mobile robots, drones, arms, sensors, and more.
🌟 Features:
- ROS 2 integration
- Advanced physics engine
- Realistic sensors and actuators
- Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)
🧩 Installation:
Download and install Webots:
# Install dependencies
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wget gnupg
# Add Webots key and repo
wget https://cyberbotics.com/Cyberbotics.asc -O - | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://cyberbotics.com/debian/ binary-amd64/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webots.list
# Install Webots
sudo apt update
sudo apt install webots
Install Webots ROS 2 packages:
sudo apt install ros-humble-webots-ros2
Launch Webots Example:
ros2 launch webots_ros2_tiago robot_launch.py
Webots provides many examples and supports custom worlds and robots.
💡 Final Thoughts
These three tools — Terminator, RQt, and Webots — form a powerful toolkit for development, visualization, and simulation in the ROS 2 ecosystem. They save time, reduce friction during debugging, and streamline complex workflows.
If you're serious about ROS 2 development, make sure these are part of your setup!