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plot/print rpy from quaternion

asked 2011-10-13 15:12:36 -0600

brice rebsamen gravatar image

updated 2011-10-13 15:35:26 -0600

Hi

I have topics that publish quaternions (e.g. Pose, Odometry, etc.). This is not very human-friendly, e.g. when doing a rostopic echo, or a rxplot.

I am dealing with a car, and I can assume a 2D model most of the time, so yaw=2*acos(w). I know this can be done from the code, so what I'm doing for now is to publish in parallel a message that gives rpy, that I can use for debugging. But it would be nice if there was some kind of filter that could be applied on live or recorded data to do the transformation.

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answered 2011-10-13 17:29:00 -0600

Thomas D gravatar image

updated 2012-09-05 08:11:18 -0600

Here is a Python node I wrote that subscribes to quaternions, converts quaternions to Euler angles, and then publish the Euler angles. The Euler angles are in a custom message, my_pkg/msg/Eulers.msg:

Header header
float64 roll
float64 pitch
float64 yaw

Then create the file my_pkg/quat_to_euler.py:

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# Start up ROS pieces.
PKG = 'my_pkg'
import roslib; roslib.load_manifest(PKG)
import rospy
import tf

# ROS messages.
from nav_msgs.msg import Odometry
from sensor_msgs.msg import Imu
from my_pkg.msg import Eulers

class QuatToEuler():
    def __init__(self):
        self.got_new_msg = False
        self.euler_msg = Eulers()

        # Create subscribers and publishers.
        sub_imu   = rospy.Subscriber("imu", Imu, self.imu_callback)
        sub_odom  = rospy.Subscriber("odom", Odometry, self.odom_callback)
        pub_euler = rospy.Publisher("euler", Eulers)

        # Main while loop.
        while not rospy.is_shutdown():
            # Publish new data if we got a new message.
            if self.got_new_msg:
                pub_euler.publish(self.euler_msg)
                self.got_new_msg = False

    # Odometry callback function.
    def odom_callback(self, msg):
        # Convert quaternions to Euler angles.
        (r, p, y) = tf.transformations.euler_from_quaternion([msg.pose.pose.orientation.x, msg.pose.pose.orientation.y, msg.pose.pose.orientation.z, msg.pose.pose.orientation.w])
        self.fill_euler_msg(msg, r, p, y)

    # IMU callback function.
    def imu_callback(self, msg):
        # Convert quaternions to Euler angles.
        (r, p, y) = tf.transformations.euler_from_quaternion([msg.orientation.x, msg.orientation.y, msg.orientation.z, msg.orientation.w])
        self.fill_euler_msg(msg, r, p, y)

    # Fill in Euler angle message.
    def fill_euler_msg(self, msg, r, p, y):
        self.got_new_msg = True
        self.euler_msg.header.stamp = msg.header.stamp
        self.euler_msg.roll  = r
        self.euler_msg.pitch = p
        self.euler_msg.yaw   = y

# Main function.    
if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Initialize the node and name it.
    rospy.init_node('quat_to_euler')
    # Go to class functions that do all the heavy lifting. Do error checking.
    try:
        quat_to_euler = QuatToEuler()
    except rospy.ROSInterruptException: pass

In my launch file I start it with:

<node pkg="my_pkg" type="quat_to_euler.py" name="imu_euler_angles">
    <remap from="imu"   to="microstrain/data"/>
    <remap from="euler" to="microstrain/euler"/>
</node>

<node pkg="my_pkg" type="quat_to_euler.py" name="kf_euler_angles">
    <remap from="odom"  to="kf/odom"/>
    <remap from="euler" to="kf/euler"/>
</node>

Then you can plot your IMU roll vs. your KF roll (for example):

rxplot /microstrain/euler/roll:/kf/euler/roll
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Comments

@Thomas D - could you guide me for the same w.r.t C++?? I am new to ROS and my programming isn't that good to understand the source code of the package that I am working on -> ros_vrpn_client. Will it be possible for you to check the source code and guide me a bit?

nemesis gravatar image nemesis  ( 2013-03-06 11:34:33 -0600 )edit

Why are the euler_from_quaternion arguments in the order x-y-z-w? The axes argument defaults to 'sxyz'instead!

jondo gravatar image jondo  ( 2015-06-22 09:19:52 -0600 )edit

Since this post is somewhat dated, can I ask if it applies REP-103 using ENU? If so what needs to be changed to convert rpy back to NED coordinate frame convention?

b2256 gravatar image b2256  ( 2016-07-15 08:02:43 -0600 )edit
22

answered 2013-03-18 12:59:59 -0600

georgwi gravatar image

Hey, here is a c++ solution to your problem :) just in case you still have use for it! Needed the transformation from quaternion to rpy-angles too so here is what I put together. Used the code fragment from http://answers.ros.org/question/36977/invalid-arguments-convert-from-quaternion-to-euler/ (here) for the actual transformation.

/****************************************************************************

Conversion from a quaternion to roll, pitch and yaw.

Nodes:
subscribed /rotation_quaternion (message of type geometry_msgs::Quaternion)
published /rpy_angles (message oftype geometry_msgs::Vector3.h)

****************************************************************************/

#include "ros/ros.h"
#include "geometry_msgs/Vector3.h"
#include "geometry_msgs/Quaternion.h"
#include "tf/transform_datatypes.h"
#include "LinearMath/btMatrix3x3.h"

// Here I use global publisher and subscriber, since I want to access the
// publisher in the function MsgCallback:
ros::Publisher rpy_publisher;
ros::Subscriber quat_subscriber;

// Function for conversion of quaternion to roll pitch and yaw. The angles
// are published here too.
void MsgCallback(const geometry_msgs::Quaternion msg)
{
    // the incoming geometry_msgs::Quaternion is transformed to a tf::Quaterion
    tf::Quaternion quat;
    tf::quaternionMsgToTF(msg, quat);

    // the tf::Quaternion has a method to acess roll pitch and yaw
    double roll, pitch, yaw;
    tf::Matrix3x3(quat).getRPY(roll, pitch, yaw);

    // the found angles are written in a geometry_msgs::Vector3
    geometry_msgs::Vector3 rpy;
    rpy.x = roll;
    rpy.y = pitch;
    rpy.z = yaw;

    // this Vector is then published:
    rpy_publisher.publish(rpy);
    ROS_INFO("published rpy angles: roll=%f pitch=%f yaw=%f", rpy.x, rpy.y, rpy.z);
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    ros::init(argc, argv, "talker");
    ros::NodeHandle n;
    rpy_publisher = n.advertise<geometry_msgs::Vector3>("rpy_angles", 1000);
    quat_subscriber = n.subscribe("rotation_quaternion", 1000, MsgCallback);

    // check for incoming quaternions untill ctrl+c is pressed
    ROS_INFO("waiting for quaternion");
    ros::spin();
    return 0;
}
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Comments

@georgwi - Could you please have a look at this as well - http://answers.ros.org/question/58742/quaternion-to-roll-pitch-yaw/

nemesis gravatar image nemesis  ( 2013-03-20 11:22:39 -0600 )edit

Thanks a lot. this was very helpful.

Rika gravatar image Rika  ( 2021-06-27 01:47:17 -0600 )edit
2

answered 2013-03-21 05:54:39 -0600

devesh gravatar image

updated 2016-02-24 13:16:23 -0600

130s gravatar image

There is a well documented page which gives information about all the apis, etc. http://www.ros.org/wiki/geometry/Rota...

Hope this helps others who come across this question later on.

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Asked: 2011-10-13 15:12:36 -0600

Seen: 27,886 times

Last updated: Feb 24 '16