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Atlas MultiSense SL head

Overview

This tutorial introduces basic sensor stream visualization from simulated MultiSense SL sensor head using rviz.

Setup

If not done previously, install DRCSim first.

Starting Atlas Robot Simulation

Source the environment setup script:

source /opt/ros/[Your ROS Distro Name]/setup.bash   # this is necessary for drcsim 3.1.0 and later
source /usr/share/drcsim/setup.sh

Start the Atlas robot simulation:

roslaunch drcsim_gazebo atlas.launch

For drcsim < 3.1.0: The package and launch file had a different name:

roslaunch atlas_utils atlas.launch

the Gazebo gui should appear:

Using RVIZ for Visualization of Sensor Data

Next, start rviz

source /usr/share/drcsim/setup.sh
rosrun rviz rviz

and follow steps in this tutorial to configure rviz properly.

More importantly, repeat the steps to setup camera and laser visualization but substitute ROS topics in the original instructions with following ROS topics:

  • camera image streams: /multisense_sl/camera/left/image_raw and /multisense_sl/camera/right/image_raw for left and right eye.
  • LIDAR data stream: /multisense_sl/laser/scan

For drcsim >= 4.1.0: If you are using atlas versions >= v3 (e.g. atlas_v3.launch), the camera and laser topics have changed:

  • camera image streams: /multisense/camera/left/image_raw and /multisense/camera/right/image_raw for left and right eye.
  • LIDAR data stream: /multisense/lidar_scan

In addition to visualizing camera images and laser data, to visualize stereo point cloud, click Add button under the rviz Displays panel, select PointCloud2 then click OK. Set the Topic for the newly added PointCloud2 visual as /multisense_sl/camera/points2. Now drop a box in front of the robot to see the point cloud visualization in rviz.

Controlling the Head LIDAR spindle

To set rotation speed commands to the LIDAR spindle, open a new terminal and type

rostopic pub --once /multisense_sl/set_spindle_speed std_msgs/Float64 '{data: 3.0}'

For drcsim >= 4.1.0: If you are using atlas versions >= v3 (e.g. atlas_v3.launch), use the following command instead:

rostopic pub --once /multisense/set_spindle_speed std_msgs/Float64 '{data: 3.0}'

Setting Decay Time under LaserScan in the rviz display panel to 5 (seconds), and change the laser scan data to green in rviz yields: