Multi Agent Suite for ROS

December 5, 2025 · View on GitHub

Based on the FKIE Multimaster, this suite provides a collection of packages for ROS 1 and 2 for discovering, synchronizing (ROS 1), monitoring, and managing nodes on different hosts using a graphical user interface.

The suite replaces the FKIE Multimaster!

mas overview

Install

The communication between the GUI and the Daemon (on each host) is based on WebSockets on port 35430+(ROS_DOMAIN_ID), 35430+255+(ROS_DOMAIN_ID)+101*(ROS_MASTER_URI_PORT-11311) with ROS1. These ports should be open in the firewall.

In ROS2 we use a discovery node to get host information for each ROS node. Currently the discovery node depends on the rmw_fastrtps_cpp ROS library. When starting the discovery node RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_fastrtps_cpp it can be prefixed with if needed (depending on ROS2 version). If the MAS nodes are started via the graphical user interface, this can be configured if needed.

Install debian packages from github

For Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and 24.04 there are Debian packages on Github that can be installed with the following command:

wget -O /tmp/install_mas_debs.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fkie/fkie-multi-agent-suite/refs/heads/devel/install_mas_debs.sh && bash /tmp/install_mas_debs.sh

Install on robot without GUI

wget -O /tmp/install_mas_debs.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fkie/fkie-multi-agent-suite/refs/heads/devel/install_mas_debs.sh && bash /tmp/install_mas_debs.sh -r

Run

mas-gui

Run as web server

mas-gui --headless

Then open in browser http://localhost:6275

Alternative Install

Using AppImage and source build

Install dependencies

You need a running TTYD to show screen or log output of the nodes.

sudo snap install ttyd --classic

A python3-websockets version >11 is required. You can install it using pip:

pip install "websockets>=12.0"

Build ROS FKIE packages

You can run the following commands to setup a build from source:

cd ros_workspace/src
git clone https://github.com/fkie/fkie-multi-agent-suite.git fkie-multi-agent-suite
rosdep update
rosdep install -i --as-root pip:false --reinstall --from-paths fkie-multi-agent-suite

Then build all packages:

catkin build fkie_mas_meta

colcon build --packages-up-to fkie_mas_daemon

Download GUI

curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/fkie/fkie-multi-agent-suite/releases/latest | grep "browser_download_url.*mas-gui.AppImage" | cut -d : -f 2,3 | tr -d \" | wget --show-progress -i -
chmod +x ./mas-gui.AppImage
mv ./mas-gui.AppImage ~/.local/bin/.

Run

mas-gui.AppImage

in Ubuntu 24.04

mas-gui.AppImage --no-sandbox

For known issues and other build and launch options that affect GUI, see fkie_mas_gui

Documentation

Websocket API -- Description of message formats for communication between GUI and daemon

We are working on the documentation for the new version. Until then you can still use the old one. Apart from the package names, all old functions should be supported.

multimaster_fkie
discovery -- discovery using multicast or zeroconf
synchronization -- master synchronization
Node Manager GUI -- A GUI to manage the configuration on local and remote ROS masters
Node Manager daemon -- Helper node allows an easy (auto)start of remote nodes and manage remote launch files

For ROS interfaces and parameterization see the ROS Wiki. For configuration details you find example launch files in each package.