Executor and timers

Timers

Timers can be created and added to the executor, which will call the timer callback periodically once it is spinning. They are usually used to handle periodic publications or events.

Initialization

// Timer period on nanoseconds
const unsigned int timer_period = RCL_MS_TO_NS(1000);

// Create and initialize timer object
rcl_timer_t timer;
rcl_ret_t rc = rclc_timer_init_default(&timer, &support, timer_period, timer_callback);

// Add to the executor
rc = rclc_executor_add_timer(&executor, &timer);

if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
  ... // Handle error
  return -1;
}

Callback

The callback gives a pointer to the associated timer and the time elapsed since the previous call or since the timer was created if it is the first call to the callback.

void timer_callback(rcl_timer_t * timer, int64_t last_call_time)
{
	printf("Last callback time: %ld\n", last_call_time);

	if (timer != NULL) {
		// Perform actions
		...
	}
}

During the callback the timer can be canceled or have its period and/or callback modified using the passed pointer. Check rcl/timer.h for details.

Cleaning Up

To destroy an initialized timer:

// Destroy timer
rcl_timer_fini(&timer);

This will deallocate used memory and make the timer invalid

Executor

The rclc Executor provides a C API to manage the execution of subscription and timer callbacks, similar to the rclcpp Executor for C++. The rclc Executor is optimized for resource-constrained devices and provides additional features that allow the manual implementation of deterministic schedules with bounded end-to-end latencies.

In this section we provide two examples:

  • Example 1: Hello-World example consisting of one executor and one publisher, timer and subscription.
  • Example 2: Triggered execution example, demonstrating the capability of synchronizing the execution of callbacks based on the availability of new messages

Further information about the rclc Executor and its API can be found rclc repository, including further examples for using the rclc Executor in mobile robotics scenarios and real-time embedded applications.

Example 1: ‘Hello World’

To start with, we provide a very simple example for an rclc Executor with one timer and one subscription, so to say, a ‘Hello world’ example. It consists of a publisher, sending a ‘hello world’ message to a subscriber, which then prints out the received message on the console.

First, you include some header files, in particular the rclc/rclc.h and rclc/executor.h.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <std_msgs/msg/string.h>
#include <rclc/rclc.h>
#include <rclc/executor.h>

We define a publisher and two strings, which will be used later.

rcl_publisher_t my_pub;
std_msgs__msg__String pub_msg;
std_msgs__msg__String sub_msg;

The subscription callback casts the message parameter msgin to an equivalent type of std_msgs::msg::String in C and prints out the received message.

void my_subscriber_callback(const void * msgin)
{
  const std_msgs__msg__String * msg = (const std_msgs__msg__String *)msgin;
  if (msg == NULL) {
    printf("Callback: msg NULL\n");
  } else {
    printf("Callback: I heard: %s\n", msg->data.data);
  }
}

The timer callback publishes the message pub_msg with the publisher my_pub, which is initialized later in main().

void my_timer_callback(rcl_timer_t * timer, int64_t last_call_time)
{
  rcl_ret_t rc;
  UNUSED(last_call_time);
  if (timer != NULL) {
    rc = rcl_publish(&my_pub, &pub_msg, NULL);
    if (rc == RCL_RET_OK) {
      printf("Published message %s\n", pub_msg.data.data);
    } else {
      printf("Error in timer_callback: Message %s could not be published\n", pub_msg.data.data);
    }
  } else {
    printf("Error in timer_callback: timer parameter is NULL\n");
  }
}

After defining the callback functions, we present now the main() function. First, some initialization is necessary to create later rcl objects. That is an allocator for dynamic memory allocation, and a support object, which contains some rcl-objects simplifying the initialization of an rcl-node, an rcl-subscription, an rcl-timer and an rclc-executor.

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
  rcl_allocator_t allocator = rcl_get_default_allocator();
  rclc_support_t support;
  rcl_ret_t rc;

  // create init_options
  rc = rclc_support_init(&support, argc, argv, &allocator);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Error rclc_support_init.\n");
    return -1;
  }

Next, you define a ROS 2 node my_node and initialize it with rclc_executor_init_default():

  // create rcl_node
  rcl_node_t my_node;
  rc = rclc_node_init_default(&my_node, "node_0", "executor_examples", &support);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Error in rclc_node_init_default\n");
    return -1;
  }

You can create a publisher to publish topic ‘topic_0’ with type std_msg::msg::String with the following code:

const char * topic_name = "topic_0";
const rosidl_message_type_support_t * my_type_support =
  ROSIDL_GET_MSG_TYPE_SUPPORT(std_msgs, msg, String);

rc = rclc_publisher_init_default(&my_pub, &my_node, my_type_support, topic_name);
if (RCL_RET_OK != rc) {
  printf("Error in rclc_publisher_init_default %s.\n", topic_name);
  return -1;
}

Note, that variable my_pub was defined globally, so it can be used by the timer callback.

You can create a timer my_timer with a period of one second, which executes the callback my_timer_callback like this:

  rcl_timer_t my_timer;
  const unsigned int timer_timeout = 1000; // in ms
  rc = rclc_timer_init_default(&my_timer, &support, RCL_MS_TO_NS(timer_timeout), my_timer_callback);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Error in rcl_timer_init_default.\n");
    return -1;
  } else {
    printf("Created timer with timeout %d ms.\n", timer_timeout);
  }

The string Hello World! can be assigned directly to the message of the publisher pub_msg.data. First the publisher message is initialized with std_msgs__msg__String__init. Then you need to allocate memory for pub_msg.data.data, set the maximum capacity pub_msg.data.capacity and set the length of the message pub_msg.data.size accordingly. You can assign the content of the message with snprintf of pub_msg.data.data.

  // assign message to publisher
  std_msgs__msg__String__init(&pub_msg);
  const unsigned int PUB_MSG_CAPACITY = 20;
  pub_msg.data.data = malloc(PUB_MSG_CAPACITY);
  pub_msg.data.capacity = PUB_MSG_CAPACITY;
  snprintf(pub_msg.data.data, pub_msg.data.capacity, "Hello World!");
  pub_msg.data.size = strlen(pub_msg.data.data);

A subscription my_subcan be defined like this:

  rcl_subscription_t my_sub = rcl_get_zero_initialized_subscription();
  rc = rclc_subscription_init_default(&my_sub, &my_node, my_type_support, topic_name);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Failed to create subscriber %s.\n", topic_name);
    return -1;
  } else {
    printf("Created subscriber %s:\n", topic_name);
  }

The global message for this subscription sub_msg needs to be initialized with:

  std_msgs__msg__String__init(&sub_msg);

Now, all preliminary steps are done, and you can define and initialized the rclc executor with:

  rclc_executor_t executor;
  executor = rclc_executor_get_zero_initialized_executor();

In the next step, executor is initialized with the ROS 2 context, the number of communication objects num_handles and an allocator. The number of communication objects defines the total number of timers and subscriptions, the executor shall manage. In this example, the executor will be setup with one timer and one subscription.

  // total number of handles = #subscriptions + #timers
  unsigned int num_handles = 1 + 1;
  rclc_executor_init(&executor, &support.context, num_handles, &allocator);

Now, you can add a subscription with the function rclc_c_executor_add_subscription with the previously defined subscription my_sub, its message sub_msgand its callback my_subscriber_callback:

rc = rclc_executor_add_subscription(&executor, &my_sub, &sub_msg, &my_subscriber_callback, ON_NEW_DATA);
if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
  printf("Error in rclc_executor_add_subscription. \n");
}

The option ON_NEW_DATA selects the execution semantics of the spin-method. In this example, the callback of the subscription my_subis only called if new data is available.

Note: Another execution semantics is ALWAYS, which means, that the subscription callback is always executed when the spin-method of the executor is called. This option might be useful in cases in which the callback shall be executed at a fixed rate irrespective of new data is available or not. If you choose this option, then the callback will be executed with message argument NULL if no new data is available. Therefore you need to make sure, that your callback also accepts NULL as message argument.

Likewise, you can add the timer my_timer with the function rclc_c_executor_add_timer:

rclc_executor_add_timer(&executor, &my_timer);
if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
  printf("Error in rclc_executor_add_timer.\n");
}

A key feature of the rclc Executor is that the order of these rclc-executor-add-*-functions matters. The order in which these functions are called defines the static processing order of the callbacks when the spin-function of the executor is running.

In this example, the timer was added to the executor before the subscription. Therefore, if the timer is ready and also a new message for the subscription is available, then the timer is executed first and after it the subscription. Such a behavior cannot be defined currently with the rclcpp Executor and is useful to implement a deterministic execution semantics.

Finally, you can run the executor with rclc_executor_spin():

  rclc_executor_spin(&executor);

This function runs forever without coming back. In this example, however, we want to publish the message only ten times. Therefore we are using the spin-method rclc_executor_spin_some, which spins only once and returns. The wait timeout for checking for new messages at the DDS-queue or waiting timers to get ready is configured to be one second.

for (unsigned int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  // timeout specified in nanoseconds (here 1s)
  rclc_executor_spin_some(&executor, 1000 * (1000 * 1000));
}

At the end, you need to free dynamically allocated memory:

  // clean up
  rc = rclc_executor_fini(&executor);
  rc += rcl_publisher_fini(&my_pub, &my_node);
  rc += rcl_timer_fini(&my_timer);
  rc += rcl_subscription_fini(&my_sub, &my_node);
  rc += rcl_node_fini(&my_node);
  rc += rclc_support_fini(&support);
  std_msgs__msg__String__fini(&pub_msg);
  std_msgs__msg__String__fini(&sub_msg);

  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Error while cleaning up!\n");
    return -1;
  }
return 0;
} // main

This completes the example. The source code can be found in the package rclc-examples rclc-examples/example_executor_only_rcl.c.

Example 2: Triggered execution

In robotic applications often multiple sensors are used to improve localization precision. These sensors can have different frequencies, for example, a high frequency IMU sensor and a low frequency laser scanner. One way is to trigger execution upon arrival of a laser scan and only then evaluate the most recent data from the aggregated IMU data.

This example demonstrates the additional feature of the rclc executor to trigger the execution of callbacks based on the availability of input data.

We setup one executor with two publishers, one with 100ms and one with 1000ms period. Then we setup one executor for two subscriptions. Their callbacks shall both be executed if the message of the publisher with the lower frequency arrives.

The output of this code example will look like this:

Created timer 'my_string_timer' with timeout 100 ms.
Created 'my_int_timer' with timeout 1000 ms.
Created subscriber topic_0:
Created subscriber topic_1:
Executor_pub: number of DDS handles: 2
Executor_sub: number of DDS handles: 2
Published: Hello World! 0
Published: Hello World! 1
Published: Hello World! 2
Published: Hello World! 3
Published: Hello World! 4
Published: Hello World! 5
Published: Hello World! 6
Published: Hello World! 7
Published: Hello World! 8
Published: Hello World! 9
Published: 0
Callback 1: Hello World! 9  <---
Callback 2: 0               <---
Published: Hello World! 10
Published: Hello World! 11
Published: Hello World! 12
Published: Hello World! 13
Published: Hello World! 14
Published: Hello World! 15
Published: Hello World! 16
Published: Hello World! 17
Published: Hello World! 18
Published: Hello World! 19
Published: 1
Callback 1: Hello World! 19 <---
Callback 2: 1               <---

This output shows, that the callbacks are executed, only if both message have received new data. In that case, the latest data of high-frequency topic is used.

You learn in this tutorial

  • how to use pre-defined trigger conditions
  • how to write custom-defined trigger conditions
  • how to run multiple executors
  • how to setup quality-of-service parameters for a subscription

We start with the necessary includes for string and int messages, <std_msgs/msg/string.h> and std_msgs/msg/int32.h respectivly. Then the necessary includes follow for the rclc convenience functions rclc.h and the the rclc executor executor.h:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <std_msgs/msg/string.h>
#include <std_msgs/msg/int32.h>

#include <rclc/executor.h>
#include <rclc/rclc.h>

Then, global variables for the publishers and subscriptions as well as their messages are defined, which are initialized in the main() function and used in the corresponding callbacks:

rcl_publisher_t my_pub;
rcl_publisher_t my_int_pub;
std_msgs__msg__String sub_msg;
std_msgs__msg__Int32 pub_int_msg;
int pub_int_value;
std_msgs__msg__Int32 sub_int_msg;
int pub_string_value;

For the custom-defined trigger conditions, the type pub_trigger_object_t and the type sub_trigger_object_t are defined.

typedef struct
{
  rcl_timer_t * timer1;
  rcl_timer_t * timer2;
} pub_trigger_object_t;

typedef struct
{
  rcl_subscription_t * sub1;
  rcl_subscription_t * sub2;
} sub_trigger_object_t;

The executor for the publishers shall publish when any of corresponding timers for the publishers is ready. That is the or-logic. You could also use the predefined rclc_executor_trigger_any trigger condition, but this example shows how you can write your own trigger conditions.

In principle, the condition gets a list of handles, the length of this list, and the pre-defined condition type. In this case, we expect pub_trigger_object_t. First, the parameter obj is cased to this type (comm_obj). Then, each element of the handle list is checked for new data (or a timer is ready) by evaluating the field handles[i].data_available and its handle pointer is compared to the pointer of the communicatoin object. If at least one timer is ready, then the trigger condition returns true.

bool pub_trigger(rclc_executor_handle_t * handles, unsigned int size, void * obj)
{
  if (handles == NULL) {
    printf("Error in pub_trigger: 'handles' is a NULL pointer\n");
    return false;
  }
  if (obj == NULL) {
    printf("Error in pub_trigger: 'obj' is a NULL pointer\n");
    return false;
  }
  pub_trigger_object_t * comm_obj = (pub_trigger_object_t *) obj;
  bool timer1 = false;
  bool timer2 = false;
  //printf("pub_trigger ready set: ");
  for (unsigned int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
    if (handles[i].data_available) {
      void * handle_ptr = rclc_executor_handle_get_ptr(&handles[i]);
      if (handle_ptr == comm_obj->timer1) {
        timer1 = true;
      }
      if (handle_ptr == comm_obj->timer2) {
        timer2 = true;
      }
    }
  }
  return (timer1 || timer2);
}

The trigger condition for the subscription sub_triggershall implement an AND-logic. That is, only if both subscriptions have received a new message, then the executor shall start processing the callbacks.

The implementation is analogous to pub_trigger. The only difference is, that this trigger returns true, if both subscriptions have been found in the handle list. This is implemented in the condition sub1 && sub2 of the last if-statement.

bool sub_trigger(rclc_executor_handle_t * handles, unsigned int size, void * obj)
{
  if (handles == NULL) {
    printf("Error in sub_trigger: 'handles' is a NULL pointer\n");
    return false;
  }
  if (obj == NULL) {
    printf("Error in sub_trigger: 'obj' is a NULL pointer\n");
    return false;
  }
  sub_trigger_object_t * comm_obj = (sub_trigger_object_t *) obj;
  bool sub1 = false;
  bool sub2 = false;
  //printf("sub_trigger ready set: ");
  for (unsigned int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
    if (handles[i].data_available == true) {
      void * handle_ptr = rclc_executor_handle_get_ptr(&handles[i]);

      if (handle_ptr == comm_obj->sub1) {
        sub1 = true;
      }
      if (handle_ptr == comm_obj->sub2) {
        sub2 = true;
      }
    }
  }
  return (sub1 && sub2);
}

Like in the Hello-World example, the subscription callbacks just prints out the received message.

The my_string_subscriber callback prints out the string of the message msg->data.data:

void my_string_subscriber_callback(const void * msgin)
{
  const std_msgs__msg__String * msg = (const std_msgs__msg__String *)msgin;
  if (msg == NULL) {
    printf("my_string_subscriber_callback: msgin is NULL\n");
  } else {
    printf("Callback 1: %s\n", msg->data.data);
  }
}

The integer callback prints out the received integer msg->data:

void my_int_subscriber_callback(const void * msgin)
{
  const std_msgs__msg__Int32 * msg = (const std_msgs__msg__Int32 *)msgin;
  if (msg == NULL) {
    printf("my_int_subscriber_callback: msgin is NULL\n");
  } else {
    printf("Callback 2: %d\n", msg->data);
  }
}

To publish messages with different frequencies, we setup two timers. One timer to publish a string message, the my_timer_string_callback and one timer to publish the integer, the my_timer_int_callback.

In the my_timer_string_callback, the message pub_msg is created and filled with the string Hello World plus an integer, which is incremented by one, each time the timer callback is called. The the message is published with rcl_publish()

The macro UNUSED is a workaround for the linter warning, that the second parameter last_call_time is not used.

#define UNUSED(x) (void)x;

void my_timer_string_callback(rcl_timer_t * timer, int64_t last_call_time)
{
  rcl_ret_t rc;
  UNUSED(last_call_time);
  if (timer != NULL) {
    //printf("Timer: time since last call %d\n", (int) last_call_time);

    std_msgs__msg__String pub_msg;
    std_msgs__msg__String__init(&pub_msg);
    const unsigned int PUB_MSG_CAPACITY = 20;
    pub_msg.data.data = malloc(PUB_MSG_CAPACITY);
    pub_msg.data.capacity = PUB_MSG_CAPACITY;
    snprintf(pub_msg.data.data, pub_msg.data.capacity, "Hello World!%d", pub_string_value++);
    pub_msg.data.size = strlen(pub_msg.data.data);

    rc = rcl_publish(&my_pub, &pub_msg, NULL);
    if (rc == RCL_RET_OK) {
      printf("Published: %s\n", pub_msg.data.data);
    } else {
      printf("Error in my_timer_string_callback: publishing message %s\n", pub_msg.data.data);
    }
    std_msgs__msg__String__fini(&pub_msg);
  } else {
    printf("Error in my_timer_string_callback: timer parameter is NULL\n");
  }
}

Likewise, the my_timer_int_callback increments the integer value pub_int_value in every call and assigns it to the message field pub_int_msg.data. Then the message is published with rcl_publish()

void my_timer_int_callback(rcl_timer_t * timer, int64_t last_call_time)
{
  rcl_ret_t rc;
  UNUSED(last_call_time);
  if (timer != NULL) {
    //printf("Timer: time since last call %d\n", (int) last_call_time);
    pub_int_msg.data = pub_int_value++;
    rc = rcl_publish(&my_int_pub, &pub_int_msg, NULL);
    if (rc == RCL_RET_OK) {
      printf("Published: %d\n", pub_int_msg.data);
    } else {
      printf("Error in my_timer_int_callback: publishing message %d\n", pub_int_msg.data);
    }
  } else {
    printf("Error in my_timer_int_callback: timer parameter is NULL\n");
  }
}

Now were are all set for the main() function:

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
  rcl_allocator_t allocator = rcl_get_default_allocator();
  rclc_support_t support;
  rcl_ret_t rc;

  // create init_options
  rc = rclc_support_init(&support, argc, argv, &allocator);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Error rclc_support_init.\n");
    return -1;
  }

First rcl is initialized with the rclc_support_init using the default allocator. The rclc-support objects are saved in support. Next, a node my_node with the name node_0 and namespace executor_examples is created with:

// create rcl_node
  rcl_node_t my_node;
  rc = rclc_node_init_default(&my_node, "node_0", "executor_examples", &support);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Error in rclc_node_init_default\n");
    return -1;
  }

A publisher my_string_pub, which publishes a string message and its corresponding timer my_string_timer with a 100ms period is created like this:

// create a publisher 1
// - topic name: 'topic_0'
// - message type: std_msg::msg::String
const char * topic_name = "topic_0";
const rosidl_message_type_support_t * my_type_support = ROSIDL_GET_MSG_TYPE_SUPPORT(std_msgs, msg, String);

rc = rclc_publisher_init_default(&my_string_pub, &my_node, my_type_support, topic_name);
if (RCL_RET_OK != rc) {
  printf("Error in rclc_publisher_init_default %s.\n", topic_name);
  return -1;
}

// create timer 1
// - publishes 'my_string_pub' every 'timer_timeout' ms
rcl_timer_t my_string_timer;
const unsigned int timer_timeout = 100;
rc = rclc_timer_init_default(&my_string_timer, &support, RCL_MS_TO_NS(timer_timeout), my_timer_string_callback);
if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
  printf("Error in rclc_timer_init_default.\n");
  return -1;
} else {
  printf("Created timer 'my_string_timer' with timeout %d ms.\n", timer_timeout);
}

Note that the previously defined my_timer_string_callback is connected to this timer. Likewise, a second publisher my_int_pub, which publishes an int message and its corresponding timer my_int_timer` with 1000ms period, is created like this:

// create publisher 2
  // - topic name: 'topic_1'
  // - message type: std_msg::msg::Int
  const char * topic_name_1 = "topic_1";
  const rosidl_message_type_support_t * my_int_type_support =
    ROSIDL_GET_MSG_TYPE_SUPPORT(std_msgs, msg, Int32);
  rc = rclc_publisher_init_default(&my_int_pub, &my_node, my_int_type_support, topic_name_1);
  if (RCL_RET_OK != rc) {
    printf("Error in rclc_publisher_init_default %s.\n", topic_name_1);
    return -1;
  }

  // create timer 2
  // - publishes 'my_int_pub' every 'timer_int_timeout' ms
  rcl_timer_t my_int_timer;
  const unsigned int timer_int_timeout = 10 * timer_timeout;
  rc = rclc_timer_init_default(&my_int_timer, &support, RCL_MS_TO_NS(timer_int_timeout), my_timer_int_callback);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Error in rclc_timer_init_default.\n");
    return -1;
  } else {
    printf("Created timer with timeout %d ms.\n", timer_int_timeout);
  }

Note that the my_timer_int_callback is connected to the my_int_timer. The data variables used for the publisher messages in the timer callbacks need to be initialized first:

std_msgs__msg__Int32__init(&int_pub_msg);
int_pub_value = 0;
string_pub_value = 0;

The first subscription my_string_sub is created with the function rcl_subscription_init because we change the quality-of-service parameter to ‘last-is-best’. That is, a new message will overwrite the older message if it has not been processed by the subscription. Also the message string_sub_msg needs to be initialized.

// create subscription 1
  rcl_subscription_t my_string_sub = rcl_get_zero_initialized_subscription();
  rcl_subscription_options_t my_subscription_options = rcl_subscription_get_default_options();
  my_subscription_options.qos.depth = 0; // qos: last is best = register semantics
  rc = rcl_subscription_init(&my_string_sub, &my_node, my_type_support, topic_name, &my_subscription_options);

  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Failed to create subscriber %s.\n", topic_name);
    return -1;
  } else {
    printf("Created subscriber %s:\n", topic_name);
  }
  // initialize subscription message
  std_msgs__msg__String__init(&string_sub_msg);

The second subscription my_int_sub is created with the rclc convenience function rclc_subscription_default and the message int_sub_msg is properly initialized.

// create subscription 2
  rcl_subscription_t my_int_sub = rcl_get_zero_initialized_subscription();
  rc = rclc_subscription_init_default(&my_int_sub, &my_node, my_int_type_support, topic_name_1);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Failed to create subscriber %s.\n", topic_name_1);
    return -1;
  } else {
    printf("Created subscriber %s:\n", topic_name_1);
  }
  // initialize subscription message
  std_msgs__msg__Int32__init(&int_sub_msg);

In this example, we are using two executors, one to schedule the publishers, and one to schedule the subscriptions:

rclc_executor_t executor_pub;
rclc_executor_t executor_sub;

The executor executor_pub is first created with rclc_executor_get_zero_initialized_executor() and has two handles (aka 2 timers).

// Executor for publishing messages
  unsigned int num_handles_pub = 2;
  printf("Executor_pub: number of DDS handles: %u\n", num_handles_pub);
  executor_pub = rclc_executor_get_zero_initialized_executor();
  rclc_executor_init(&executor_pub, &support.context, num_handles_pub, &allocator);

  rc = rclc_executor_add_timer(&executor_pub, &my_string_timer);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Error in rclc_executor_add_timer 'my_string_timer'.\n");
  }

  rc = rclc_executor_add_timer(&executor_pub, &my_int_timer);
  if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
    printf("Error in rclc_executor_add_timer 'my_int_timer'.\n");
  }

Both timers are added to the exececutor with the function rclc_executor_add_timer:

rc = rclc_executor_add_timer(&executor_pub, &my_string_timer);
if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
  printf("Error in rclc_executor_add_timer 'my_string_timer'.\n");
}

rc = rclc_executor_add_timer(&executor_pub, &my_int_timer);
if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
  printf("Error in rclc_executor_add_timer 'my_int_timer'.\n");
}

Also the second publisher has two handles, the two subscriptions:

unsigned int num_handles_sub = 2;
printf("Executor_sub: number of DDS handles: %u\n", num_handles_sub);
executor_sub = rclc_executor_get_zero_initialized_executor();
rclc_executor_init(&executor_sub, &support.context, num_handles_sub, &allocator);

Which are added with the function rclc_executor_add_subscription:

// add subscription to executor
rc = rclc_executor_add_subscription(
  &executor_sub, &my_string_sub, &string_sub_msg,
  &my_string_subscriber_callback,
  ON_NEW_DATA);
if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
  printf("Error in rclc_executor_add_subscription 'my_string_sub'. \n");
}

// add int subscription to executor
rc = rclc_executor_add_subscription(
  &executor_sub, &my_int_sub, &int_sub_msg,
  &my_int_subscriber_callback,
  ON_NEW_DATA);
if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
  printf("Error in rclc_executor_add_subscription 'my_int_sub'. \n");
}

The trigger condition of the executor, which publishes messages, shall execute when any timer is ready. This can be configured with the function rclc_executor_set_trigger and the parameter rclc_executor_trigger_any. While the executor for the subscriptions shall only execute if both messages have arrived. Therefore the trigger parameter rclc_executor_trigger_any can be used:

rc = rclc_executor_set_trigger(&executor_pub, rclc_executor_trigger_any, NULL);
rc = rclc_executor_set_trigger(&executor_sub, rclc_executor_trigger_all, NULL);

Finally, the executors spin-some functions can be started. The sleep-time between the executors is intended for communication time for DDS.

for (unsigned int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
  // timeout specified in ns                 (here: 1s)
  rclc_executor_spin_some(&executor_pub, 1000 * (1000 * 1000));
  usleep(1000); // 1ms
  rclc_executor_spin_some(&executor_sub, 1000 * (1000 * 1000));
}

This example is concluded with the clean-up code:

// clean up
rc = rclc_executor_fini(&executor_pub);
rc += rclc_executor_fini(&executor_sub);
rc += rcl_publisher_fini(&my_string_pub, &my_node);
rc += rcl_publisher_fini(&my_int_pub, &my_node);
rc += rcl_timer_fini(&my_string_timer);
rc += rcl_timer_fini(&my_int_timer);
rc += rcl_subscription_fini(&my_string_sub, &my_node);
rc += rcl_subscription_fini(&my_int_sub, &my_node);
rc += rcl_node_fini(&my_node);
rc += rclc_support_fini(&support);

std_msgs__msg__Int32__fini(&int_pub_msg);
std_msgs__msg__String__fini(&string_sub_msg);
std_msgs__msg__Int32__fini(&int_sub_msg);

if (rc != RCL_RET_OK) {
  printf("Error while cleaning up!\n");
  return -1;
}
return 0;
}

In case the default trigger conditions are not sufficient, then the user can define custom logic conditions. The source code of the custom-programmed trigger condition has already been presented. The following code will setup the executor accordingly:

 pub_trigger_object_t comm_obj_pub;
 comm_obj_pub.timer1 = &my_string_timer;
 comm_obj_pub.timer2 = &my_int_timer;

 sub_trigger_object_t comm_obj_sub;
 comm_obj_sub.sub1 = &my_string_sub;
 comm_obj_sub.sub2 = &my_int_sub;

 rc = rclc_executor_set_trigger(&executor_pub, pub_trigger, &comm_obj_pub);
 rc = rclc_executor_set_trigger(&executor_sub, sub_trigger, &comm_obj_sub);

The custom structs pub_trigger_object_t are used to save the pointer of the handles. The timers my_string_timer and my_int_timer for the publishing executor; and, likewise, the subscriptions my_string_sub and my_int_sub for the subscribing executor. The configuration is done also with the rclc_executor_set_trigger by passing the trigger function and the trigger object, e.g. pub_trigger and comm_obj_pub for the executor_pub, respectivly.

The complete source code of this example can be found in the file rclc-examples/example_executor_trigger.c.