Open-source ROS4HRI packages

The ROS4HRI ecosystem consists of several open-source packages available on GitHub, organized by feature area.

ROS version support

ROS4HRI is primarily developed and tested on ROS 2 Humble.

ROS 1 Noetic is supported but in maintenance mode (no regular tests; no new developments; pull requests are however welcome).
Support for ROS 2 Jazzy and Rolling is planned but not yet generally available.

Hint

You are the author of a ROS4HRI-compliant node? We would love to feature it in this list! Open a discussion on the ROS4HRI GitHub organization, or better yet, directly create a Pull Request against this page.

Core Libraries & Messages

Package	Description	Installation
hri_msgs interfaces	Standard ROS messages for HRI (faces, bodies, voices, persons)	`apt install ros-<distro>-hri-msgs`
hri_actions_msgs interfaces	Standard ROS actions for HRI Intents	`apt install ros-<distro>-hri-actions-msgs`
human_description	Standard URDF models for humans	`apt install ros-<distro>-human-description`
libhri (C++)	C++ library to ease interaction with ROS4HRI topics	`apt install ros-<distro>-hri`
pyhri (Python)	Python library to ease interaction with ROS4HRI topics	`apt install ros-<distro>-pyhri`

Perception

Face Perception

Packages implementing face-related perception capabilities as defined in REP-155 – Faces.

Package	Detection	Landmarks	Gaze	Expression	Recognition	Installation
hri_face_detect	✓	✓	✓			from sources
hri_emotion_recognizer				✓		from sources
hri_face_identification					✓	from sources

Body Perception

Packages implementing body-related perception capabilities as defined in REP-155 – Bodies.

Package	2D Skeleton	3D Skeleton	Hands	TF frames	Posture/Gestures	Installation
hri_body_detect	✓	✓		✓	(basic)	from sources

Voice & Audio Perception

Packages implementing voice-related perception capabilities as defined in REP-155 – Voices.

Package	Audio Features	Voice Activity Detection	Speech Recognition	Direction of speech	Speaker ID	Installation
asr_vosk			✓ (`vosk`)			from sources

Person Tracking & Fusion

Packages implementing person-level tracking and multi-modal fusion as defined in REP-155 – Persons.

Package	Face/Body Matching	Person Fusion	Engagement	Installation
hri_face_body_matcher	✓			`apt install ros-<distro>-hri-face-body-matcher`
hri_person_manager		✓		from sources
hri_engagement			✓	from sources

Interaction Skills

Standard skill definitions

Standard skill definitions for robot actions and behaviors. See ROS4HRI Standard Skills for the complete list.

Package	Skills Defined	Installation
Communication	Verbal communication (Say, Chat, Ask)	from sources
Interaction	Social interaction (LookAt, LookFor, LED effects, Expressions)	from sources
Navigation	Navigation (Navigate, Waypoints, Zones)	from sources
Motions	Motion execution (Joint/Cartesian trajectories)	from sources
Manipulation	Manipulation (Grasp, Place, Hand control)	from sources

Note

These packages are skill definitions, not implementations. They define standard ROS action interfaces to enable interoperability. Use rpk to generate skill implementation skeletons.

Development Tools

Package	Description	Installation
rpk	ROS4HRI package generator for skills, tasks, and applications	`pip install rpk`
architecture_schemas	JSON schemas for skill definitions and validation	from sources
architecture_tools	Tools to validate and discover skills (`ament_archlint`)	from sources
std_skills	Standard/common skills messages	from sources

Visualization & Debugging

Package	Description	Installation
hri_rviz	RViz plugins for visualizing HRI data (faces, bodies, persons)	`apt install ros-<distro>-hri-rviz`
hri_visualization	Camera image overlay with faces, bodies, emotions	from sources
rqt_human_radar	rqt plugin for radar-like human visualization	from sources
rqt_chat	Chat interface for debugging dialogue systems	from sources
interaction_sim	ROS 2 simulation environment for HRI research	from sources

Building User Interface

Package	Description	Installation
ui_server	ROS 2 display server for interactive QML content	from sources
ui_msgs	ROS 2 messages for UI server	from sources
ros-qml-plugin	QML plugin for ROS integration	from sources