Getting Started in ROS

You can either create a standalone executable for accessing the VI Sensor or you can stream the output to ROS (Robotic Operating System) using the corresponding ROS front-end. For the standalone interface, refer to this section.

Installation

You can download the low-level driver from this Github repo into your catkin workspace (for information on how to set up your catkin workspace, please refer to this tutorial). Then download the ROS front-end from here:

#making sure you have all the necessary dependencies
sudo apt-get install libeigen3-dev libboost-dev libopencv-dev
#change directory into catkin folder
cd ~/<CATKIN_WS>/src
#checkout low-level driver
git clone https://github.com/ethz-asl/libvisensor.git
#checkout ROS front-end
git clone https://github.com/ethz-asl/visensor_node.git
# build visensor low-level driver and ROS front-end
cd ..
catkin_make

Running the sensor driver

Start a roscore in a separate terminal:

roscore

Assuming that the sensor is powered and connected, you can run the driver with

rosrun visensor_node visensor_node

If there is an error (e.g. failed autodiscovery or incompatible firmware version), please refer to the FAQ.

If the ROS front-end started properly, you can check the image stream using

rosrun image_view image_view image:=/cam0/image_raw
rosrun image_view image_view image:=/cam1/image_raw

The IMU stream is at the topic /imu0

rostopic echo /imu0

ROS stereo pipeline

We also provide a launch file for the standard ROS stereo pipeline. You can launch the ROS block-matcher using

roscore
roslaunch visensor_node dense.launch

The dense.launch roslaunch file starts the visensor_node by itself, so you don't need to start the visensor_node separately.

If the disparity output is very noisy, please refer to the FAQ.

Sensor Settings

The VI Sensor comes preconfigured with standard settings, such as automatic gain and exposure control for example. The Configuring the Sensor page gives an overview of configurable parameters and how to change them.

ROS Topics and Services

Have a look at the ROS Topics and Services section for more information.