updated publish_rate assignment logic

Author: soham2560

hardware_interface/include/hardware_interface/hardware_component_interface.hpp

@@ -187,6 +187,16 @@ class HardwareComponentInterface : public rclcpp_lifecycle::node_interfaces::Lif
       try
       {
         publish_rate = hardware_interface::stod(it->second);
+
+        if (publish_rate < 0.0)
+        {
+          RCLCPP_ERROR(
+            get_logger(),
+            "'status_publish_rate' cannot be negative (got %.lf). Please fix your hardware "
+            "parameters.",
+            publish_rate);
+          return CallbackReturn::ERROR;
+        }
       }
       catch (const std::invalid_argument &)
       {
@@ -196,13 +206,7 @@ class HardwareComponentInterface : public rclcpp_lifecycle::node_interfaces::Lif
       }
     }
 
-    if (publish_rate == 0.0)
-    {
-      RCLCPP_INFO(
-        get_logger(),
-        "`status_publish_rate` is set to 0.0, hardware status publisher will not be created.");
-    }
-    else
+    if (publish_rate > 0.0)
     {
       control_msgs::msg::HardwareStatus status_msg_template;
       if (init_hardware_status_message(status_msg_template) != CallbackReturn::SUCCESS)