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Foxglove lets you see what your robot sees — camera feeds, LiDAR scans, navigation costmaps, TF frames — all from a browser. Works on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

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How it works

MARS runs a Foxglove Bridge node that exposes ROS2 topics over WebSocket. You connect to it from Foxglove on your laptop.

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Setup

1

SSH into MARS

2

Install Foxglove Bridge (if not already installed)

3

Start the bridge

The bridge listens on port 8765 by default.
4

Open Foxglove in your browser

Go to app.foxglove.dev.Click Open connection → Foxglove WebSocket → enter:
5

Add panels

Once connected, add visualization panels:
  • Image panel → select /oak/rgb/image_raw for the camera feed
  • 3D panel → see TF frames, LiDAR, and navigation paths
  • Plot panel → graph any numeric topic over time
  • Raw Messages panel → inspect any topic’s raw data

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Useful topics to visualize

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RViz alternative (Linux only)

If you’re on a Linux machine with ROS2 Humble installed, you can use RViz directly. It connects to MARS over Zenoh DDS — no bridge needed. Make sure your machine is on the same network and Zenoh discovery can reach the robot. Then:
Add displays for the topics you care about. RViz gives you the most complete visualization experience but requires a native Linux + ROS2 setup.

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Troubleshooting

  • Verify MARS and your laptop are on the same network.
  • Check the bridge is running: ros2 node list | grep foxglove.
  • Try the IP address directly instead of .local hostname.
  • Make sure port 8765 isn’t blocked by a firewall.
  • The bridge only exposes topics that are actively published. Make sure ROS nodes are running: innate view.
  • Try ros2 topic list on the robot to confirm topics exist.
  • Image topics are bandwidth-heavy. Use a wired Ethernet connection for the best experience.
  • In Foxglove, reduce the image panel’s update rate or use compressed image topics if available.