Unlocking System Observability with Apex.Grace

Why logging, tracing, and introspection matter for autonomous systems

When building autonomous systems, it isn’t optional—it’s foundational. From early-stage prototyping to rigorous validation in safety-critical environments, developers must understand exactly what’s happening under the hood. That’s where system observability comes in. 

Apex.Grace is designed with observability at its core. It optimizes performance and maintains system integrity across complex architectures. Built on the strength of the ROS ecosystem and extended with capabilities specific to high-performance, real-time applications, Apex.Grace observability spans three powerful dimensions: logging, tracing, and introspection. 

System Observability with Apex.Grace 

Logging: Real-Time Ready, Safety Compliant 

Apex.Grace implements a robust logging infrastructure that goes beyond conventional frameworks. It’s real-time capable and embedded-system safe, avoiding blocking calls and dynamic memory allocation entirely. Log messages are created using deterministic methods and transmitted over the communication stack to an asynchronous log writer. 

Whether you're debugging locally or aggregating logs from multiple nodes, Apex.Grace supports flexible configuration, with runtime and compile-time options for log levels, output destinations, and formatting. The system outputs logs in a log4cxx-compatible format for seamless integration with third-party viewers and includes GUI support via the Apex.Grace Console RQt plugin for live visual inspection. 

Tracing: Precision Insights into Execution Behavior 

For deeper behavioral and performance analysis, Apex.Grace incorporates LTTng-based tracing, enabling detailed inspection of both userspace and kernel-level activity on Linux systems. With tracepoints integrated throughout the Executor and middleware layers, developers can capture end-to-end performance data right out of the box. 

Using the Apex.Grace Compass GUI: This trace data becomes an actionable visualization. See execution timelines, identify bottlenecks, and compare system states across different builds or configurations. Whether you’re tuning load distribution across cores or investigating latency spikes, Compass delivers the clarity needed to move with confidence. 

Introspection: Structural Transparency, Data Flow Clarity 

Understanding your system’s structure and behavior is critical to building reliable robotics applications. Apex.Grace enhances standard ROS 2 CLI tools with additional capabilities, such as visualization of process dependencies and state transition graphs.

For visual inspection, Apex.Grace integrates with trusted tools like RViz2, RQt, and PlotJuggler—offering real-time graphing of DDS topic data and comprehensive graphical introspection. Developers can easily examine node health, communication pathways, and message throughput from both a micro and macro perspective. 

At the system level, the System Status CLI and service collect and present lifecycle and health data from across the applications. Powered by the Event System infrastructure, this tool offers a unified view of application states, helping teams proactively monitor and manage runtime conditions. 

Built for Developers, Ready for Deployment 

Apex.Grace's observability tools empower developers to build, debug, and deploy with unmatched transparency. Whether you're developing next-gen autonomous vehicles or safety-critical industrial systems, observability is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. 

With Apex.Grace, it’s also an advantage. 

Get in touch with our team to schedule a live demo to start building with Apex.Grace today.