Hi everyone, I'm trying to simulate a Turtlebot using the electric turtlebot_simulator stack installed from .debs on Ubuntu 11.10/64Bit. It appears that the launch files are good for driving around a little, but there are some caveats described in the following.

In turtlebotgazebo/launch/robot.launch ,multiple nodelets are loaded into a "opennimanager" nodelet manager that never gets launched, thus all those nodelets are hanging around waiting for the manager. With a little help by starting it manually from the command line:

rosrun nodelet nodelet manager __name:=openni_manager

they get loaded and the pointcloudtolaserscan nodelets start doing their job. One of the nodelets publishes on the same "/scan" topic just like the simulated laserscanner mounted on the Turtlebot however, which makes rviz flicker while constantly switching between the narrow kinect scan and the simulated wide fov scan.

What is the rationale for not simulating the Kinect properly by default (and launching the nodelets properly in the launch file) and instead using a second laser scanner that is not installed on the real Turtlebot?