RobREx Mapping

Artur Wilkowski
ArturWilkowski@piap.pl

Copyright (C) 2015, Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements
Security and Defence Systems Division
http://www.piap.pl

Overview

The software is composed of two modules. The first module 'kinect_calib' is used for kinect camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters calibration. The second module 'surfel_mapper' is dedicated to efficient creation of 3D surfel maps using data from the Kinect sensor. The 'surfel_mapper' module relies on the visual odometry data that can be provided by Ivan Dryanovski 'CCNY RGB-D Tools' (Fast Visual Odometry and Mapping module) ccny_rgbd_tools.

Both 'kinect_calib' and 'surfel_mapper' modules are available in the form of ROS nodes. The 'surfel_mapper' is additionally available as a stand-alone library.

This code is at an experimental stage, and licensed under the GPLv2 license.

Installing on Ubuntu 14.04

Prerequisities

Ubuntu basic modules

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop,git,terminator

ROS Indigo

Install ROS Indigo according to the instructions.

ROS workspace

Prepare ROS workspace '~/catkin_ws' according to the instructions.

Additional ROS packages

Install required ROS packages

sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-freenect-launch ros-indigo-libg2o libsuitesparse-dev

OpenCV 2.4 with non-free module (for SURF)

Update opencv from PPA to the version supporting SURF

sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:xqms/opencv-nonfree
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install libopencv-nonfree-dev

Checkout and build Robrex Mapping module

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone git@github.com:piappl/robrex_mapping.git
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Checkout and build a patched FVOM module

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone git@github.com:piappl/ccny_rgbd_tools.git
cd ~/catkin_ws/src/ccny_rgbd_tools
rosmake

RobREx mapping - Quick usage

Provide kinect calibration files

Intrinsic and extrinsic Kinect camera calibration files (rgb.yml, depth.yml, trans.yml) should be put in '/catkin_ws/data/kinect_calib/calibration'. The calibration files can be generated using Kinect Calib module tools. Sample calibration files are available in '/catkin_ws/src/kinect_calib/samplecalib'.

Start Kinect stream preprocessing and registration

roslaunch kinect_calib depthreg.launch

Start Fast Visual Odometry and Mapping nodes

roslaunch surfel_mapper visual_odometry.launch 

Start Surfel Mapper node

roslaunch surfel_mapper surfel_mapper

surfel_mapper node ROS API

Subscribed Topics

/mapper_path (nav_msgs/Path)

      Sensor positions for subsequent keyframes

/keyframes (sensor_msgs/PointCloud2)

      Keyframes to be added to the surfel map

/camera/rgb/camera_info (sensor_msgs/CameraInfo)

      Parameters of RGBD camera

Published Topics

/surfelmap_preview (sensor_msgs/PointCloud2)

      Voxel-level preview of the surfel map

/surfelmap (visualization_msgs/MarkerArray)

      Part of the surfel map visualized as a marker array

Parameters

~dmax (double, default:0.05)

      distance threshold for surfel update

~min_kinect_dist (double, default: 0.8)

      reliable minimum sensor reading distance

~max_kinect_dist (double, default: 4.0)

      reliable maximum sensor reading distance

~octree_resolution (double, default: 0.2)

      resolution of the underlying octree

~preview_resolution (double, default: 0.2)

      resolution of output preview map

~preview_color_samples_in_voxel (int, default: 3)

      number of samples in voxel used for constructing preview point (affects preview efficiency)

~confidence_threshold (int, default: 5)

      confidence threshold used for establishing reliable surfels

~min_scan_znormal (double, default: 0.2)

      acceptable minimum z-component of scan normal

~use_frustum (bool, default: true)

      use frustum or no

~scene_size (int, default: 30000000)

      preallocated size of scene

~logging (bool, default: true)

      logging turned on or off

~use_update (bool, default: true)

      use surfel update or no

Services

reset_map (surfel_mapper/PublishMap)

      Resets map. Removes all surfels, the map is ready to accomodate a new set of keyframes

save_map (surfel_mapper/SaveMap)

       Saves the surfel map in the form of XYZRGB point cloud. The default file 'cloud.pcd' is saved to a standard ROS output directory

publish_map (surfel_mapper/PublishMap)

       Publishes a fragment of the map as in a \surfelmap topic. The arguments following service call specify x1, x2, y1, y2, z1, z2 coordinates of the map fragment bounding box

Sample calls to services:

Save the current map to a PCD file:

rosservice call /save_map	

Send the selected map fragment from the bounding box (-0.2, -0.2, 0.6)-(0.2, 0.2, 1.6):

rosservice call /publish_map -- -0.2 0.2 -0.2 0.2 0.6 1.6