C++ boolean argv argument to ROS topic

In our lab, we’ve been working on an ROS solution to record movements and playback then in a servo-controlled DF-Robot called Dr Robot a.k.a. Pumpkin.

To change a MOSFET status we use this simple and useful snippet to get a boolean variable from the command line in C++, publishing the value as a topic for ROS.

#include "ros/ros.h"
#include "std_msgs/Bool.h"

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
  ros::init(argc, argv, "mosfet_status_publisher");
  ros::NodeHandle n;
  ros::Publisher mosfet_status_pub = n.advertise<std_msgs::Bool>("mosfet_status", 1000);
  ros::Rate loop_rate(10);

  bool status;
  char* status_char;

  if (argc <= 1) {
      status = false;
  } else {
      status_char = argv[1];
      std::stringstream ss;
      ss << status_char;
      ss >> std::boolalpha >> status;
  }

  int count = 0;
  std_msgs::Bool mosfet_status;
  while (ros::ok()) {
      mosfet_status.data = status;
      mosfet_status_pub.publish(mosfet_status);

      ros::spinOnce();
      loop_rate.sleep();
      ++count;
  }
  return 0;
}

If there isn’t arguments, false is the default value published. That’s all.