Choosing a DDS vendor is usually as simple as changing the RMW_IMPLEMENTATION environment variable. It can be set after building Autoware, as long as the respective rmw_* packages are installed before building, because the software is built for all the available typesupports installed. The rmw layer loads a given rmw_* implementation at runtime via the RMW_IMPLEMENTATION variable, unless there's only one, in which case it shortcuts to the installed RMW implementation. The change can also be made more permanent by changing it in the ADE_DOCKER_RUN_ARGS in the .aderc file.

For more information about why one would want to use a different DDS vendor and which ones are available, see this ROS Index article. For more information about working with multiple middleware (DDS) implementations, see this ROS Index article.

The supported versions of each DDS implementation for a particular version of ROS are detailed in REP-2000.

Eclipse Cyclone DDS

Eclipse Cyclone DDS is the default DDS in ADE and required for integration with the LGSVL simulator :

ade$ export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp

FastDDS

FastDDS, formerly known as FastRTPS, is the default in ROS Dashing:

ade$ export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_fastrtps_cpp

RTI Connext DDS

RTI Connext DDS is not installed in ADE by default, so one more step is needed:

ade$ sudo apt update
ade$ sudo apt-get install rti-connext-dds-5.3.1 ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-rmw-connext-cpp
ade$ export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_connext_cpp

GurumDDS

GurumDDS is not installed in ADE by default, so one more step is needed:

ade$ sudo apt update
ade$ sudo apt-get install gurumdds-2.6 ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-rmw-gurumdds-cpp
ade$ export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_gurumdds_cpp

Table of Contents

Eclipse Cyclone DDS

FastDDS

RTI Connext DDS

GurumDDS