New Tool Lets Browsers Control Robots and Drones Directly
Soon you could manage real-world machines from a web page—no coding degree needed.
Send a goal, follow the feedback, get the result. rclnodejs 2.3.0, the ROS 2 client library for Node.js, brings ROS 2 actions to web apps over WebSocket and HTTP/SSE.
The browser SDK derives TypeScript goal, feedback and result types from generated ROS declarations, and OpenAPI export also includes action schemas. With an HTTP runtime on port 9001, you can expose a running Fibonacci action server as /fibonacci.
Together with the topic and service support from earlier releases, actions round out the client-facing operations, controlled by the same capability allow-list. JavaScript and TypeScript demos offer runnable examples, and background on the typed Web SDK and capability runtime first introduced in 2.0.0 is in the original announcement.
- Web browsers can now send commands to robots and drones using standard web connections.
- Developers can build web apps that start a robot's task, watch progress, and get results.
- It's a tool for programmers, not a ready-to-use app for everyday people.
Why It Matters
This could lead to simpler, web-based controls for robots in warehouses, farms, and labs.