Add new strictness modes to SwitchController service (#2224) (#2231)

Author: mergify[bot]

controller_manager/src/controller_manager.cpp

@@ -1376,6 +1376,22 @@ controller_interface::return_type ControllerManager::switch_controller_cb(
                    ? controller_manager_msgs::srv::SwitchController::Request::STRICT
                    : controller_manager_msgs::srv::SwitchController::Request::BEST_EFFORT;
   }
+  else if (strictness == controller_manager_msgs::srv::SwitchController::Request::AUTO)
+  {
+    RCLCPP_WARN(
+      get_logger(),
+      "Controller Manager: AUTO is not currently implemented. "
+      "Defaulting to BEST_EFFORT");
+    strictness = controller_manager_msgs::srv::SwitchController::Request::BEST_EFFORT;
+  }
+  else if (strictness == controller_manager_msgs::srv::SwitchController::Request::FORCE_AUTO)
+  {
+    RCLCPP_DEBUG(
+      get_logger(),
+      "Controller Manager: FORCE_AUTO is not currently implemented. "
+      "Defaulting to BEST_EFFORT");
+    strictness = controller_manager_msgs::srv::SwitchController::Request::BEST_EFFORT;
+  }
 
   std::string activate_list, deactivate_list;
   activate_list.reserve(500);

controller_manager_msgs/srv/SwitchController.srv

@@ -9,7 +9,20 @@
 #    * STRICT means that switching will fail if anything goes wrong (an invalid
 #      controller name, a controller that failed to activate, etc. )
 #    * BEST_EFFORT means that even when something goes wrong with on controller,
-#      the service will still try to activate/stop the remaining controllers
+#      the service will still try to activate/deactivate the remaining controllers
+#    * AUTO means that the controller manager will automatically resolve the controller
+#      chain in order to activate and/or deactivate the specified controllers.
+#      This is useful in complex systems when you want all dependent controllers to start
+#      within the same update iteration.
+#    * FORCE_AUTO means that the controller manager will take all necessary steps to activate
+#      the specified controllers without requiring you to explicitly list the controllers
+#      to be deactivated. This is useful when the controller being activated depends on
+#      another unknown controller that is currently running. The controller manager will
+#      deactivate any controllers that block the activation of the requested controller,
+#      following the mutually exclusive joint interface switching principle. For example,
+#      to activate a controller that uses a joint's position interface, the controller manager
+#      will automatically deactivate any controllers that use conflicting interfaces for
+#      the same joint.
 #  * activate the controllers as soon as their hardware dependencies are ready, will
 #    wait for all interfaces to be ready otherwise
 #  * the timeout before aborting pending controllers. Zero for infinite
@@ -25,6 +38,8 @@ string[] deactivate_controllers
 int32 strictness
 int32 BEST_EFFORT=1
 int32 STRICT=2
+int32 AUTO=3
+int32 FORCE_AUTO=4
 bool activate_asap
 builtin_interfaces/Duration timeout
 ---