Robot Bringup (ROS2 boot & systemd)

Configures a robot's onboard computer to launch its full ROS2 stack on boot using systemd services, layered launch files, udev rules and health checks.

Dev & CodingAdvanced★ 368⑂ 47AI score 9/10Last updated: Aug 12, 2026

What it does

systemd units for ROS2: ready-to-adapt unit templates that source the workspace, load DDS env vars (RMW_IMPLEMENTATION, ROS_DOMAIN_ID, CYCLONEDDS_URI), and add watchdogs, restart policies, rate limiting and cgroup resource caps.
Layered launch composition: hardware → drivers → perception → application launch files plus a top-level bringup.launch.py, with conditional loading for sim vs. real hardware and robot variants.
Ordered startup: device-presence check scripts, wait-for-node / wait-for-topic utilities, and Nav2 lifecycle-manager orchestration to eliminate boot-time race conditions.
udev rules: stable symlinks such as /dev/robot/lidar and /dev/robot/camera_front instead of shifting /dev/video0 and /dev/ttyUSB* numbering.
Also covers log rotation, graceful shutdown that parks actuators safely, and multi-machine DDS discovery.

Who it's for

Robotics engineers running ROS2 Humble/Iron/Jazzy on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 who want power-on-and-go behaviour
Anyone whose stack works from a shell but fails at boot due to missing devices or node ordering
Teams hardening field robots with watchdogs, auto-restart and production logging

Examples

"Write a systemd service so my robot's ROS2 stack starts on boot" → unit file with workspace sourcing, SIGINT-based graceful stop and restart-on-failure.
"SLAM crashes because it starts before the LiDAR driver is ready" → ExecStartPre device checks, a wait-for-topic helper and After/Requires service dependencies.
"My two USB cameras swap /dev/video numbers after reboot" → udev rules keyed on USB port path or serial number for deterministic symlinks.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arpitg1304/robotics-agent-skills/HEAD/skills/robot-bringup/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)

Download the ZIP with the button below.
In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.

↓ Download ZIP

Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the skills/robot-bringup folder from the GitHub repo arpitg1304/robotics-agent-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/robot-bringup/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/arpitg1304/robotics-agent-skills.git /tmp/robotics-agent-skills && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/robotics-agent-skills/skills/robot-bringup ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

Open a terminal and clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/arpitg1304/robotics-agent-skills.git
Create the skills directory: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
Copy just this skill: cp -r robotics-agent-skills/skills/robot-bringup ~/.claude/skills/
Verify that ~/.claude/skills/robot-bringup/SKILL.md exists.
Restart Claude Code and ask something like "write a systemd service for my ROS2 robot bringup" — the skill triggers automatically.
Generated unit files and udev rules use placeholder paths (/home/robot/ros2_ws, package my_robot_bringup); edit them for your setup, then run sudo systemctl daemon-reload and sudo udevadm control --reload-rules.

View source on GitHub ↗License: Apache-2.0