bno055_imu

ROS 2 Jazzy driver for the Bosch BNO055 9-axis absolute orientation IMU over I2C.

Features

• Publishes sensor_msgs/Imu on the imu/data topic (includes fused quaternion orientation)
• Publishes sensor_msgs/MagneticField on the imu/mag topic
• Publishes sensor_msgs/Temperature on the imu/temp topic
• Fake mode — generates random 9-axis IMU data without physical hardware
• Built-in sensor fusion: absolute orientation as quaternion (NDOF mode)
• Configurable operation mode: NDOF, IMU, Compass, M4G
• Calibration status readable from the BNO055

Why this package?

There is an existing ROS2 BNO055 driver (flynneva/bno055). This package takes a different approach:

Feature	flynneva/bno055	This package
fake_mode	Not supported	Supported (default true)
Calibrate / Reset services	Read-only (returns current offsets)	Auto-calibrate (2 s sampling) + reset
Runtime parameter change	Not supported	publish_rate changeable via ros2 param set
ROS2 Jazzy	Not explicitly tested	Tested on Jazzy
I2C library	smbus	smbus2
UART support	Yes	No (I2C only)
Axis remapping	Yes (P0–P7)	No
Topics	6 (imu, imu_raw, mag, grav, temp, calib_status)	3 (imu/data, imu/mag, imu/temp)
colcon test	No launch tests	Full launch tests (28 tests, 0 failures)

Choose this package if you need fake_mode for CI/testing, simple calibration services, or a lightweight Jazzy-tested driver. Choose flynneva/bno055 if you need UART support or axis remapping.

Prerequisites

• ROS 2 Jazzy
• Python 3
• smbus2 (only required when fake_mode is false)

pip3 install smbus2

Installation

cd ~/ros2_ws
colcon build --packages-select bno055_imu
source install/setup.bash

Usage

Launch with default parameters (fake mode)

ros2 launch bno055_imu bno055_launch.py

Run the node directly

ros2 run bno055_imu bno055_node.py --ros-args -p fake_mode:=true

Run with real hardware

ros2 run bno055_imu bno055_node.py --ros-args -p fake_mode:=false

Override parameters via YAML

ros2 launch bno055_imu bno055_launch.py params_file:=/path/to/your_params.yaml

Verify output

ros2 topic echo /imu/data
ros2 topic echo /imu/mag
ros2 topic echo /imu/temp

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
fake_mode	bool	true	true: generate random data, false: read from real I2C device
i2c_bus	int	1	I2C bus number (/dev/i2c-N)
device_address	int	0x28	BNO055 I2C address (0x28 or 0x29)
publish_rate	double	100.0	Publishing rate in Hz
frame_id	string	imu_link	TF frame ID in message headers
operation_mode	string	ndof	Fusion mode: ndof, imu, compass, m4g
orientation_covariance	double	0.01	Diagonal orientation covariance (rad²)
angular_velocity_covariance	double	0.02	Diagonal angular velocity covariance (rad²/s²)
linear_acceleration_covariance	double	0.04	Diagonal acceleration covariance (m²/s⁴)
magnetic_field_covariance	double	0.0	Diagonal magnetic field covariance (T²), 0 = unknown

Operation Modes

Mode	Sensors Used	Description
ndof	Accel + Gyro + Mag	9-axis absolute orientation (default)
imu	Accel + Gyro	6-axis relative orientation (no magnetometer)
compass	Accel + Mag	Heading only
m4g	Accel + Mag	Rotation from magnetometer, tilt from accelerometer

Package Structure

bno055_imu/
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── package.xml
├── config/
│   └── bno055_params.yaml
├── launch/
│   └── bno055_launch.py
├── bno055_imu/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── bno055_driver.py
├── nodes/
│   └── bno055_node.py
└── test/
    └── test_bno055_node.py

Test Results

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04 (WSL2) with fake_mode: true.

$ colcon test --packages-select bno055_imu
$ colcon test-result --verbose
Summary: 28 tests, 0 errors, 0 failures, 0 skipped

Test Category	Test	Result
Topics	imu/data publishes sensor_msgs/Imu	PASS
Topics	imu/mag publishes sensor_msgs/MagneticField	PASS
Topics	imu/temp publishes sensor_msgs/Temperature	PASS
Topics	frame_id == "imu_link"	PASS
Topics	Temperature in range 10-40 °C	PASS
Services	imu/calibrate returns success=True	PASS
Services	imu/reset returns success=True	PASS
Parameters	publish_rate runtime change to 20.0 Hz	PASS
Shutdown	Clean exit (code 0, -2, or -15)	PASS
Linting	pep257, flake8, copyright, xmllint	PASS

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.