Memory Leak in ROS 2 Component Container on Jetson Orin NX

Question

I've identified a memory leak issue in ROS 2 Humble running on Jetson Orin NX. When components repeatedly allocate memory without proper cleanup, the system shows continuous memory growth.

Reproduction Steps:

# Create a simple node that continuously allocates memory
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__('leaky_component')
        self._stored_data = []
        self.timer = self.create_timer(1.0, self.timer_callback)

    def timer_callback(self):
        # Allocate memory without cleanup
        new_data = np.random.rand(1000, 1000)
        self._stored_data.append(new_data)

Observed Behavior:

Memory usage increases linearly No memory recovery between allocations System becomes unstable over time

System Details:

ROS 2 Humble NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX JetPack 6.1

Has anyone else encountered this issue? What's the best practice for handling memory cleanup in ROS 2 components?

Answer 1

Memory usage increases linearly No memory recovery between allocations

This is expected behavior, and it is correct behavior given what your code told the computer to do.