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Credits

iROSLink is built on top of several open-source projects and third-party services. We are grateful to the people who build and maintain them.

Open-source libraries

Library License What it does in iROSLink
RTABMap BSD 3-Clause Real-time SLAM, loop closure detection, graph optimisation
Zenoh Apache 2.0 / MIT ROS2 transport over WiFi
ROS 2 Apache 2.0 Robotics framework, message definitions
Foxglove SDK MIT CDR encoding for sensor messages; Foxglove WebSocket v1 protocol
swift-ros2 Apache 2.0 Native Swift ROS2 client — message types and pub/sub primitives

RTABMap

RTABMap (Real-Time Appearance-Based Mapping) is developed by Mathieu Labbé and the IntRoLab group at Université de Sherbrooke. Without it, the SLAM and loop closure features in iROSLink would not exist.

Zenoh

Zenoh is an Eclipse Foundation project developed by the ZettaScale team. It replaces the DDS transport layer in ROS2 with a lower-latency, WiFi-friendly protocol.

ROS 2

ROS 2 (Robot Operating System 2) is the robotics framework that iROSLink publishes topics to. The message definitions (sensor_msgs, nav_msgs, geometry_msgs, etc.) are all from the ROS 2 ecosystem.

Foxglove SDK

The Foxglove SDK is used in two ways inside iROSLink:

  1. CDR encoding — sensor messages (IMU, GPS, Odometry, maps, TF, camera, etc.) are encoded into CDR format using the Foxglove SDK before being streamed over WebSocket.

  2. Foxglove WebSocket v1 protocol — iROSLink includes a native Swift implementation of the Foxglove WebSocket server protocol, based on the protocol specification from the Foxglove SDK.

  3. GitHub: foxglove/foxglove-sdk

  4. Credit: Foxglove, Inc.

iROSLink is not affiliated with Foxglove.

swift-ros2

swift-ros2 is a native Swift client library for ROS 2, developed by Yutaka Kondo (youtalk). It provides ROS2 message types, CDR serialization, and Zenoh publish/subscribe without requiring the rcl/rclcpp stack — making it suitable for iOS where the C++ ROS2 stack cannot run.

Third-party services

Foxglove Studio

Foxglove Studio is the recommended visualization tool for iROSLink data. It is available as a web app at studio.foxglove.dev and as a desktop app. Connect directly to the phone using the built-in Foxglove WebSocket server — no additional bridge software required.

Foxglove Studio is free for individual use. See foxglove.dev/pricing for details.

Apple frameworks

The following Apple frameworks are used internally and do not require separate attribution, but are worth mentioning for context:

  • ARKit — visual-inertial odometry and device tracking
  • CoreMotion — IMU data (accelerometer, gyroscope)
  • CoreLocation — GPS
  • Metal / CoreImage — GPU-accelerated image encoding

These are proprietary Apple frameworks available on iOS.

Repo URL What it is
iroslink-esp32 github.com/iROSLink/iroslink-esp32 ESP32 firmware — subscribes to /cmd_vel via Zenoh, drives motors
iroslink-docker github.com/iROSLink/iroslink-docker Docker bridge — optional ROS2 Zenoh router for desktop use
iroslink-docs github.com/iROSLink/iroslink-docs This documentation site