Unable to detect obstacles in costmap [closed]

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I am running move_base , taking scan input from hokuyo laser, using laser_scan_matcher for localization, and using a blank costmap to start with. The global and local costmap params use rolling window instead of static map. My relevant launch files are dumped here :http://pastebin.com/8SArVL9p .

My problem is that I cannot see any obstacles in the costmap (I made logs in the costmap_2d.cpp & costmap_2d_ros.cpp to register obstacles). As such, move_base sends commands that go into obstacles, whenever I send it a goal. I suspect there is an issue with my costmap params, and would like to know which. I don't know if the initial, blank costmap I send causes a problem.

The robot controller computer on which I run all this has rviz segfaulting, and I'm unable to bring up rviz after exhaustive debugging ; but I was able to verify the presence of nearby obstacles by (temporarily) connecting the laser to a different computer that ran rviz.

Note:

(1) I have altered laser_scan_matcher to send a tf from /map -> /odom (this agrees very well with my previous tests) instead of to map -> baselink.

(2) I am also publishing a laser->base_link and a /odom->base_link transform separately.