BT Nodes Validation

The validate_bt_xml_nodes.py script validates Behavior Tree node definitions by comparing C++ code implementations against their XML definitions in nav2_tree_nodes.xml.

The script ensures:

• All nodes registered in code are defined in XML
• All ports match between code and XML (name, type, default value)
• All ports have descriptions in XML

Prerequisites

Install the required dependencies using a virtual environment in the navigation2 directory:

1. Install pip and venv if not already installed:

   sudo apt install python3-pip python3-venv

2. Create a virtual environment and activate it:

   python3 -m venv venv &&
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install all required dependencies:

   pip install \
       -r tools/bt_nodes_validation/requirements.txt

[!NOTE] The pip install might display warnings about missing ROS2 dependencies like: generate-parameter-library-py requires setuptools, typeguard... These are system package dependencies and can be ignored since they're not required by the validation.

How to use

From the navigation2 root directory:

python3 tools/bt_nodes_validation/validate_bt_xml_nodes.py \
    --config tools/bt_nodes_validation/config.yml

Configuration

The script can be configured using config.yml file. It specifies:

• nav2_bt_nodes_file_path: path to the XML file containing BT node definitions
• local_repositories: directories containing C++ code files for BT nodes to validate
• github_repositories (optional): external GitHub repositories that contain BT nodes to clone and validate

Running Tests

To run the test suite for this validation tool, see test/README.md for detailed instructions.