How to pass parameters to included launch description?

Question

I have two launch files: a main launch file, and a sub launch file. The main launch file invokes the sub launch file with

    run_odometry = LaunchConfiguration('run_odometry', default=True)
    sub_launch = GroupAction(
            actions=[
                PushRosNamespace(
                    namespace='some_namespace'
                ),
                IncludeLaunchDescription(
                    launch_description_source=PythonLaunchDescriptionSource(
                        launch_file_path=sub_launch_file)
                    ),
                    launch_arguments=[
                        ('run_odometry', run_odometry)
                    ]
                )
            ]
        )

The sub launch then defines some node parameters:

    default_parameters_file = shared_folder / 'config' / 'default_configs.yaml'
    override_parameters_file = some_folder / 'configs.yaml'
    parameters = [default_parameters_file, override_parameters_file]
    run_odometry = LaunchConfiguration('run_odometry', default=True)

and passes those parameters to several nodes, like for instance:

    odometry_node = Node(
        condition=IfCondition(run_odometry),
        package='odometry',
        executable='odometry_node',
        output='screen',
        parameters=parameters
    )

But now I'd like to move parameters from the sub launch file to the main launch file and call the sub launch file with something like:

    default_parameters_file = shared_folder / 'config' / 'default_configs.yaml'
    override_parameters_file = some_folder / 'configs.yaml'
    parameters = LaunchConfiguration('parameters', default=[default_parameters_file, override_parameters_file])
    run_odometry = LaunchConfiguration('run_odometry', default=True)
    sub_launch = GroupAction(
            actions=[
                PushRosNamespace(
                    namespace="some_namespace"
                ),
                IncludeLaunchDescription(
                    launch_description_source=PythonLaunchDescriptionSource(
                        launch_file_path=sub_launch_file)
                    ),
                    launch_arguments=[
                        ('parameters', parameters),
                        ('run_odometry', run_odometry)
                    ]
                )
            ]
        )

Then in the sub launch file have something like:

    parameters = LaunchConfiguration('parameters')
    run_odometry = LaunchConfiguration('run_odometry', default=True)

and again

    odometry_node = Node(
        condition=IfCondition(run_odometry),
        package='visual_odometry',
        executable='visual_odometry_node',
        output='screen',
        parameters=parameters
    )

But that doesn't work: 'Node' expected 'parameters' to be one of [<class 'list'>], but got '<launch.substitutions.launch_configuration.LaunchConfiguration object at 0x7f48e2dd6290>' of type '<class 'launch.substitutions.launch_configuration.LaunchConfiguration'>'

The error makes sense, but I don't know how to make this work. There's hardly any documentation on this. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Well I ended up with passing on the launch files as individual launch configs:

    default_parameters_file = shared_folder / 'config' / 'default_configs.yaml'
    override_parameters_file = some_folder / 'configs.yaml'

    default_parameters_file_config = LaunchConfiguration('default_parameters_file', default=default_parameters_file)
    override_parameters_file_config = LaunchConfiguration('override_parameters_file', default=override_parameters_file)
    run_odometry_config = LaunchConfiguration('run_odometry', default=True)

    sub_launch = GroupAction(
            actions=[
                PushRosNamespace(
                    namespace="some_namespace"
                ),
                IncludeLaunchDescription(
                    launch_description_source=PythonLaunchDescriptionSource(
                        launch_file_path=sub_launch_file)
                    ),
                    launch_arguments=[
                        ("default_parameters_file", default_parameters_file_config),
                        ("override_parameters_file", override_parameters_file_config),
                        ("run_odometry", run_odometry_config)
                    ]
                )
            ]
        )

I would have liked a more flexible solution allowing any amount of parameter files, but that became too messy and this serves my purposes too.

Answer 2

Perhaps you can try with evaluation of the parameters with OpaqueFunction (example here: [1]) in the sub launch file to get these parameters to set them in the higher level launch file the usual way.