launch file parameters are confused

[J-xinyu]

It is highly recommended to optimize the parameter configuration structure of the launch file. When multiple launches are nested, there are a large number of parameters that are declared multiple times, and some parameters that are declared but not used. This causes me great trouble when reading launch files.
For example, autoware.launch.xml declares that perception_mode default to lidar. But in perception.launch.xml perception_mode default is camera_lidar_fusion. This caused me to end up not understanding which parameter was loaded

[badai-nguyen]

@J-xinyu I appreciate your requests and strongly argee with you.
I think a potential solution for this matter is to omit the defaut parameter values in launch file at the lower level. However it could put challenges for who interest in testing a single autoware module like perception or planning.
We, TIER IV, has started the discussion internally on this topic and hope could make a proposal open soon.
It's very nice if you could share any idea or proposal that you might have.

[xmfcx]

@satoshi-ota could you try this tool and see if it can be helpful for you?

https://github.com/xmfcx/launch_unifier_ws

It resolves the final parameters of the launch file and generates a simple form of the existing launch file.

It could help verify/validate as you work on migrating the launch file.

[satoshi-ota]

@xmfcx I tried your nice tool and confirmed that it generate generated.launch.xml !!! I think it is very convenient & helpful for us to check the parameter values without launching autoware 👍 👍

On the other hand, I met a issue that I couldn't launch autoware by using generated.launch.xml. It seemed that robot_state_publisher couldn't be launch properly. (FYI: I confirmed that it is able to launch autoware with original launch commnad.)

[ERROR] [robot_state_publisher-15]: process has died [pid 2330486, exit code -6, cmd '/opt/ros/humble/lib/robot_state_publisher/robot_state_publisher --ros-args -r __node:=robot_state_publisher -r __ns:=/ --params-file /tmp/launch_params_dinim9xp --params-file /tmp/launch_params_5e_6nwkp --params-file /tmp/launch_params_o22ub2co --params-file /tmp/launch_params_gppa3a80 --params-file /tmp/launch_params_w5laf0ss -
-params-file /tmp/launch_params_fsq7u1si --params-file /tmp/launch_params_r5bt9zgw --params-file /tmp/launch_params_ou9aos8s --params-file /tmp/launch_params_9dr91kcl --params-file /tmp/launch_params_o0eemp5w --params-file /tmp/launch_params_3y0qm3gf --params-file /tmp/launch_params_ku_w6pmv'].   

[xmfcx]

This is great news!

@satoshi-ota that's normal, see https://github.com/xmfcx/launch_unifier_ws#xacro-support for details please.

You need to enter that part manually.

I put a short example for autoware, you just need to update it for vehicle name, sensor kit name and it should work.

[satoshi-ota]

Oh, I see! @xmfcx I'll try it again!

[satoshi-ota]

@xmfcx Sorry, I fotgot to report the result 🙏
I fixing only one line in output/generated.launch.xml, it worked well!!!

Actually, it's helpful, and I used your tool to know how the parameters are passed to nodes by xml files in my refactoring task.