ROS2 Launch File Generator

Pick the nodes you need and generate a bringup launch file and a controller launch file as a starting point — including the Gazebo resource-path exports that avoid the classic "mesh not found" / nothing-loads errors, and correctly-sequenced controller spawners.

Bringup launch file

Package nameXacro/URDF path (relative to package share)

Gazebo (gz sim) + spawn robotLaunches the simulator and spawns your robot from /robot_description.

Entity nameWorld file

Spawn x (m)Spawn y (m)Spawn z (m)Spawn yaw (rad)

RViz2Adds a use_rviz launch argument so it can be toggled off at run time.

RViz config path (relative to package share)

joint_state_publisherPublishes fake joint states, for viewing a robot with no real/simulated hardware behind it.joint_state_publisher_guiSame, with sliders. Skip both of these if ros2_control's joint_state_broadcaster is already publishing joint states.static_transform_publisherA fixed TF, e.g. between a sensor frame and base_link.

Custom nodes

A blank starting point for any node this tool doesn't know about — fill in the package/executable, rename it, add params, and it'll drop straight into the generated file.

Controller launch file

Launch my own controller_manager (ros2_control_node)Leave this off if you're simulating with Gazebo's gz_ros2_control / gazebo_ros2_control plugin — it already starts one inside the simulator, and launching a second one here will conflict with it. Turn this on for real hardware (or any setup where nothing else starts one for you).

Controllers to spawn

joint_state_broadcaster is always included first. Add the controller names exactly as they appear in your controllers.yaml — each one gets its own spawner, chained to start only after the previous one finishes (spawning them all at once can race against controller_manager and fail).

Before you run these:

Make sure your CMakeLists.txt actually installs the urdf/, rviz/, and config/ directories (install(DIRECTORY urdf rviz config DESTINATION share/${PROJECT_NAME})) — a very common reason these paths "don't exist" is that they were never copied into the install space.
Don't run joint_state_publisher and a real/simulated joint_state_broadcaster at the same time — they'll both try to publish /joint_states.
These two files cover bringup + controllers only — planner/controller-server, nav2, and MoveIt config aren't generated here.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Bringup launch file for my_robot_description, generated by RoboticsTools.in's ROS2 Launch File Generator."""
 
import os
 
from launch import LaunchDescription
from launch.actions import DeclareLaunchArgument, AppendEnvironmentVariable, IncludeLaunchDescription
from launch.conditions import IfCondition
from launch.launch_description_sources import PythonLaunchDescriptionSource
from launch.substitutions import Command, LaunchConfiguration, PathJoinSubstitution
from launch_ros.actions import Node
from launch_ros.substitutions import FindPackageShare
 
def generate_launch_description():
    pkg_share = FindPackageShare('my_robot_description')
    xacro_path = PathJoinSubstitution([pkg_share, 'urdf/robot.xacro'])
 
    # Gazebo needs to find this package's meshes/models via package:// URIs, or you'll get
    # "mesh not found" / nothing-loads errors. This adds the share directory's parent to
    # Gazebo's resource search path without clobbering anything you've already sourced.
    set_gz_resource_path = AppendEnvironmentVariable(
        'GZ_SIM_RESOURCE_PATH',
        PathJoinSubstitution([pkg_share, os.pardir]),
    )
 
    robot_description = {'robot_description': Command(['xacro ', xacro_path])}
 
    rviz_config_path = PathJoinSubstitution([pkg_share, 'rviz/config.rviz'])
 
    robot_state_publisher_node = Node(
        package='robot_state_publisher',
        executable='robot_state_publisher',
        output='screen',
        parameters=[robot_description, {'use_sim_time': LaunchConfiguration('use_sim_time')}],
    )
 
    gazebo = IncludeLaunchDescription(
        PythonLaunchDescriptionSource(
            PathJoinSubstitution([FindPackageShare('ros_gz_sim'), 'launch', 'gz_sim.launch.py'])
        ),
        launch_arguments={'gz_args': ['-r ', LaunchConfiguration('world')]}.items(),
        condition=IfCondition(LaunchConfiguration('use_gazebo')),
    )
 
    spawn_robot_node = Node(
        package='ros_gz_sim',
        executable='create',
        output='screen',
        parameters=[{
            'name': 'my_robot',
            'topic': '/robot_description',
            'x': LaunchConfiguration('x'),
            'y': LaunchConfiguration('y'),
            'z': LaunchConfiguration('z'),
            'Y': LaunchConfiguration('yaw'),
        }],
        condition=IfCondition(LaunchConfiguration('use_gazebo')),
    )
 
    rviz_node = Node(
        package='rviz2',
        executable='rviz2',
        name='rviz2',
        output='screen',
        arguments=['-d', rviz_config_path],
        condition=IfCondition(LaunchConfiguration('use_rviz')),
    )
 
    return LaunchDescription([
        DeclareLaunchArgument('use_sim_time', default_value='true', description='Use simulation (Gazebo) clock'),
        DeclareLaunchArgument('use_gazebo', default_value='true', description='Launch Gazebo and spawn the robot'),
        DeclareLaunchArgument('world', default_value='empty.sdf', description='Gazebo world file (bundled with ros_gz_sim, or an absolute path)'),
        DeclareLaunchArgument('x', default_value='0', description='Spawn X position (m)'),
        DeclareLaunchArgument('y', default_value='0', description='Spawn Y position (m)'),
        DeclareLaunchArgument('z', default_value='0.1', description='Spawn Z position (m)'),
        DeclareLaunchArgument('yaw', default_value='0', description='Spawn yaw (rad)'),
        DeclareLaunchArgument('use_rviz', default_value='true', description='Launch RViz'),
        set_gz_resource_path,
        robot_state_publisher_node,
        gazebo,
        spawn_robot_node,
        rviz_node,
    ])