ROS Data Analyzer

Visualize messages from live ROS or ROS 2 topics and bag files

Since R2023a

Description

The ROS Data Analyzer app allows you to visualize messages from live ROS or ROS 2 topics and bag files. Within the app, you can create multiple viewers to simultaneously visualize different ROS or ROS 2 messages from a live topic or a bag file. Additionally, you can assign a unique tag to any ROS or ROS 2 bag file, serving as an identifier for that file. The app also enables you to bookmark specific events when reviewing messages from a bag file. You can then search any bag file by filtering through tags, bookmarks, or the types of visualizers used, and export this data for further analysis.

You can open the following viewers using the app, which support the given message types in the table.

Types of Viewer

Viewer	Viewer Icon	Interface	Description
Image Viewer			Load a bag file containing `sensor_msgs/Image` or `sensor_msgs/CompressedImage` message type. Select Image Viewer from the toolstrip and choose the data source from the drop down to visualize the image. Use the top-right corner options to zoom in and out, and pan the image in all directions.
Point Cloud Viewer			Load a bag file containing `sensor_msgs/PointCloud2` message type. Select Point Cloud Viewer from the toolstrip and choose the data source from the drop down to visualize the point cloud message. Use the top-right corner options to zoom in and out, pan, and rotate the message in 3D.
Laser Scan Viewer			Load a bag file containing `sensor_msgs/LaserScan` message type. Select Laser Scan Viewer from the toolstrip and choose the data source from the drop down to visualize the laser scan message. Use the options on the top to zoom in and out, pan, and rotate the message 3D.
Odometry Viewer			Load a bag file containing `nav_msgs/Odometry` message type. Select Odometry Viewer from the toolstrip and choose the data source from the drop down to visualize the odometry message. See the indicator to view the instantaneous location of the robot in the trajectory. Use the top-right corner options to zoom in and out, and pan in all directions.
XY Plot Viewer			Load a bag file containing `geometry_msgs/Point` or `nav_msgs/Odometry` message type. Select XY Plot Viewer from the toolstrip and choose the data source from the drop down to visualize how the numeric message field changes across the XY axes. See the indicator to view the instantaneous location of the robot across the XY axes. Use the top-right corner options to zoom in and out, and pan in all directions.
Time Plot Viewer			Load a bag file containing `geometry_msgs/Point` or `nav_msgs/Odometry` message type. Select Time Plot Viewer from the toolstrip and choose the data source from the drop down to visualize how the numeric message field changes with respect to time. See the indicator to view the instantaneous location of the robot. Use the top-right corner options to zoom in and out, and pan in all directions.
Message Viewer			Load a bag file containing any message type. Select Message Viewer from the toolstrip and choose the data source from the drop down to visualize the raw message stored in the rosbag.
Map Viewer			Load a bag file containing `sensor_msgs/NavSatFix` or `gps_common/GPSFix` message types. Select Map Viewer from the toolstrip and choose the data source from the drop down to visualize the GPS message. See the indicator to view the instantaneous location of the GPS coordinate in the trajectory. Use the top-right corner options to zoom in and out, and pan in all directions.
3D Viewer			Load a bag file containing `sensor_msgs/PointCloud2`, `sensor_msgs/LaserScan`, `visualization_msgs/Marker` or `visualization_msgs/MarkerArray` message type. Select 3D viewer from the toolstrip to open the 3D Settings tab at the top-right edge of the app canvas. Select one or multiple topics from the table in the 3D Settings tab for overlaid 3D visualization. Specify the visualization color of the selected topics between these options from the dropdown: Default — Message appears in the viewer in its default color, based on PARULA default colors and theme. Flat Color — Opens color picker to choose from a set of Standard Colors and Custom Colors (RGB) options and overwrite the default color data stored in the message. Click Base Frame ID to choose the coordinate frame for rendering the scene. The camera position and orientation are relative to the origin of this frame. To render a scene, you must have a transform from its frame to the selected coordinate frame in the Base Frame ID parameter. If the scene's frame matches the Base Frame ID, you do not need to apply an additional transform. For more information on transform between coordinate frames for scene rendering, see the Transforms for Marker and 3D Visualization table. Use the top-right corner options in the viewer to zoom in and out, pan, and rotate the messages in 3-D.
Marker Viewer			Load a bag file containing `visualization_msgs/Marker` or `visualization_msgs/MarkerArray` message types. Select Marker Viewer from the toolstrip and choose the data source from the drop down in the Visualizer Settings tab to visualize the marker message. Click Base Frame ID to specify the frame ID which you want to be the global frame for marker visualization. To render a marker, you must have a transform from its frame to the selected coordinate frame in the Base Frame ID parameter. If the scene's frame matches the Base Frame ID, you do not need to apply an additional transform. For more information on transform between coordinate frames for scene rendering, see the Transforms for Marker and 3D Visualization table. Use the top-right corner options to zoom in and out, pan, and rotate the message in 3-D. From the Tools section on the app toolstrip, you can: Toggle the marker visualizer view between 2-D and 3-D axes. Select two marker points and measure distance between them. Use the data tips option in the top-right corner to select the two points of interest.

For each viewer, you can filter the supported messages in the bag file for visualization. You can fast forward, and rewind based on the message timestamp or elapsed time while playing the bag file. You can also pause, and play the bag frame-by-frame. The app also displays information about the bag file contents after loading the bag file. You can also save a snapshot of the visualization window at any particular instance of time.

Open the ROS Data Analyzer App

MATLAB^® Toolstrip: On the Apps tab, under Robotics and Autonomous Systems, click the app icon .
MATLAB command prompt: Enter rosDataAnalyzer.

Examples

Programmatic Use

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`rosDataAnalyzer`

rosDataAnalyzer opens the ROS Data Analyzer app, which enables you to visualize messages in a ROS or ROS 2 bag file.

Version History

Introduced in R2023a

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R2025a: Visualize unregistered ROS 2 message types

You can now load a ROS 2 bag file containing unregistered message types and visualize those messages in the ROS Data Analyzer app.

R2025a: Overlay multiple messages in 3D visualizer

You can now overlay multiple messages of the following message types in 3D visualizer:

sensor_msgs/PointCloud2
sensor_msgs/Laserscan
visualization_msgs/Marker
visualization_msgs/MarkerArray

You can move, zoom, and rotate the camera along all its axes in the 3D environment. You can view live topic data in the 3D visualizer and also change the color of each available topic for proper distinction.

R2024b: Visualize message data in Marker and Map visualizers

You can now create visualizers for 3-D marker data and map display using the ROS Data Analyzer app and play back the data in all the supported messages types for these visualizers.

R2024b: Export data using topics, bookmarks, or search results

You can now export your topics and bookmarks and save them to a BAG or MCAP file. You can also export your search results to a CSV file from searches across all bag files from your previous sessions, using filters like tags, bookmarks, or visualizers.

R2024a: App renamed to ROS Data Analyzer

The ROS Bag Viewer app has been renamed to ROS Data Analyzer.

R2024a: Play and visualize live data from topics in ROS and ROS 2, and add tags and search bag files

You can now use the ROS Data Analyzer app to play live data from topics in ROS and ROS 2. You can also add tags to ROS and ROS 2 bag files and search across all the recently opened ones using these filters:

Tags added to bag files
Bookmarks added to bag files
Visualizers open in the last session with the bag file loaded in the app

R2023b: Enable visualizing ROS 2 bag files and 3-D odometry plots, adding bookmarks, and saving and importing sessions

You can now use the ROS Bag Viewer app to visualize ROS 2 Bag files and add 3-D odometry plots to visualize nav_msgs/Odometry messages. You can also add bookmarks while visualizing bag file data.

The app now automatically saves the visualization session including the plots and bookmarks for a ROS or ROS 2 bag file, when you close the app or load a new bag file. It restores the data when you load the same bag file again.