NCLT2ROS

The nclt2ros package provides ROS nodes for

• downloading
• extracting
• visualizing
• converting

the data from The University of Michigan North Campus Long-Term Vision and LIDAR Dataset.

Table of contents:

• Launch files
• Usage
• Examples
• Transformation tree

Launch files

download.launch

launch file for downloading the raw data

<launch>
    # download
    <node name="nclt2ros" pkg="nclt2ros"  type="nclt2downloader" output="screen">
    
        <param name="date"          value="2013-01-10" />
        <param name="raw_data_path" value="/home/christian/nclt2ros/raw_data" />
        
        <param name="lb3"           value="False" />
        <param name="sen"           value="True" />
        <param name="vel"           value="False" />
        <param name="hokuyo"        value="False" />
        <param name="gt"            value="True" />
        <param name="gt_cov"        value="True" />
        
    </node>
</launch>

downloads the sen (sensor data), gt (ground truth) and gt_cov (ground truth covariance) from date 2013-01-10 in folder /home/christian/nclt2ros/raw_data

visualize.launch

launch file for visualizing specific data

<launch>
    # visualize
    <node name="nclt2ros" pkg="nclt2ros"  type="nclt2visualizer" output="screen">
    
        <param name="date"          value="2013-01-10"/>
        <param name="raw_data_path" value="/home/christian/nclt2ros/raw_data" />
        <param name="plot_path"     value="/home/christian/nclt2ros/plots" />
        
        <param name="show_plot"     value="True" />
        
        <param name="gt_kml"        value="False" />
        <param name="gt_png"        value="True" />
        <param name="gps_kml"       value="False" />
        <param name="gps_png"       value="False" />
        <param name="gps_rtk_kml"   value="True" />
        <param name="gps_rtk_png"   value="True" />
        <param name="odom_kml"      value="False" />
        <param name="odom_png"      value="True" />
        <param name="all"           value="False" />
        
    </node>
</launch>

visualizes the gt_png, gps_rtk_kml, gps_rtk_png and odom_png from date 2013-01-10 with raw data in /home/christian/nclt2ros/raw_data and places the plots in /home/christian/nclt2ros/plots

convert.launch

launch file for converting the raw data to rosbag files

<launch>
    # download
    <node name="nclt2ros" pkg="nclt2ros"  type="nclt2rosbag" output="screen">
    
        <param name="date"                  value="2013-01-10"/>
        <param name="raw_data_path"         value="/home/christian/nclt2ros/raw_data" />
        <param name="rosbag_output_path"    value="/home/christian/nclt2ros/rosbags"/>
        <param name="bag_name"              value="nclt" />
        <param name="cam_folder"            value="5"/>
        
        # specify data to convert
        <param name="lb3"                   value="False" />
        <param name="sen"                   value="True" />
        <param name="vel"                   value="True" />
        <param name="hokuyo"                value="True" />
        <param name="gt"                    value="True" />
        
        # topic names
        <param name="gps_fix"               value="/navsat/fix" />
        <param name="gps_track"             value="/navsat/track" />
        <param name="gps__speed"            value="/navsat/speed" />
        <param name="gps_rtk_fix"           value="/navsat/rtk/fix" />
        <param name="gps_rtk_track"         value="/navsat/rtk/track" />
        <param name="gps_rtk_speed"         value="/navsat/rtk/speed" />
        <param name="ms25_imu_data"         value="/imu/data" />
        <param name="ms25_imu_mag"          value="/imu/mag" />
        <param name="wheel_odometry_topic"  value="/odom" />
        <param name="hokuyo_utm_topic"      value="/hokuyo_30m" />
        <param name="hokuyo_urg_topic"      value="/hokuyo_4m" />
        <param name="velodyne_topic"        value="/velodyne_points" />
        <param name="ladybug_topic"         value="/images/raw" />
        <param name="ground_truth_topic"    value="/ground_truth" />
        
        # frame ids
        <param name="gps_sensor"            value="gps_link" />
        <param name="gps_rtk_sensor"        value="gps_rtk_link" />
        <param name="imu_sensor"            value="imu_link" />
        <param name="wheel_odometry_sensor" value="odom" />
        <param name="hokuyo_utm_lidar"      value="laser_utm" />
        <param name="hokuyo_urg_lidar"      value="laser_urg" />
        <param name="velodyne_lidar"        value="velodyne" />
        <param name="ladybug_sensor"        value="camera" />
        <param name="ground_truth"          value="ground_truth_link" />
        <param name="body"                  value="base_link" />
        
    </node>
</launch>

Usage

building from source

create a catkin workspace

mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src

cd ~/catkin_ws/

catkin_make 

source devel/setup.bash

download and build this repository

cd src 

git clone https://github.com/bierschi/nclt2ros.git 

cd ~/catkin_ws/ 

catkin_make

source the catkin workspace to access the package nclt2ros

source devel/setup.bash

execute specific roslaunch file

roslaunch nclt2ros download.launch

Examples

data from date 2013-01-10

visualizing as a png file

data from date 2012-01-08

rosbag file

Transformation Tree

for self defined transformation tree, change frame_id and topic_name in launch file convert.launch