Hello People, I set up a System with a Sick S300 laser scanner and hector slam, since I have no odometry to give to rviz.

I am working witht the cobsicks300 package and hector mapping.

I tried to walk around with the laser scanner and get a map, unfortunately it doesnt work that good. I am posting a picture of the Map here.

I am also inserting my launch-files so that anybody can try it. should work out of the box EDIT:

I found the error and with this update I can provide any user an out of the box solution for the laserscanner. The error can be found in fields in the yaml file, I am posting the new one here:

port: /dev/ttyUSB0
baud: 500000
scan_duration: 0.025 #no info about that in SICK-docu, but 0.025 is believable and looks good in rviz
scan_cycle_time: 0.040 #SICK-docu says S300 scans every 40ms
inverted: false
scan_id: 7
frame_id: /camera_link
scan_intervals: [[-1.3526, 1.361357]] #[rad] these intervals are included to the scan
fields: 
 '1':
  scale: 0.01
  start_angle: -2.355
  stop_angle: 2.355
 # '2':
  #  scale: 2.0
   # start_angle: -11.0
    #stop_angle: 12.0

with this I get the following map: Which is pretty satisfying :) contact me if u need help! :)

s300_launch.launch

    <launch>

    <!-- start laser driver -->
    <node name="laser" pkg="cob_sick_s300" type="cob_sick_s300" respawn="false" output="screen">
        <rosparam command="load" file="s300_config.yaml"/>

    </node>
</launch>

hector_mapping.launch

<launch>

<node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="map_to_scanmatcher" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 /map /hector_mapping 100"/>
<node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="map_to_base_footprint" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 /map /base_footprint 100"/>
<node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="base_footprint_to_base_link" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 /base_footprint /base_link 100"/>
<node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="base_link_to_base_stabilized" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 /base_link /base_stabilized 100"/>
<node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="base_stablized_to_base_frame" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 /base_stabilized /base_frame 100"/>
<node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="base_frame_to_laser_link" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 /base_frame /camera_link 100"/>
<node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="base_to_nav_link" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 /base_frame /nav 100"/>

 <arg name="tf_map_scanmatch_transform_frame_name" default="scanmatcher_frame"/>
  <arg name="base_frame" default="base_footprint"/>
 <param name="pub_map_odom_transform" value="true"/>
    <param name="map_frame" value="map" />
    <param name="base_frame" value="base_frame" />
    <param name="odom_frame" value="base_frame" />

 <arg name="odom_frame" default="nav"/>
  <arg name="pub_map_odom_transform" default="true"/>
  <arg name="scan_subscriber_queue_size" default="5"/>
  <arg name="scan_topic" default="laser/scan"/>
  <arg name="map_size" default="2048"/>

  <node pkg="hector_mapping" type="hector_mapping" name="hector_mapping" output="screen">

    <!-- Frame names -->
    <param name="map_frame" value="map" />
    <param name="base_frame" value="$(arg base_frame)" />
    <param name="odom_frame" value="$(arg odom_frame)" />

    <!-- Tf use -->
    <param name="use_tf_scan_transformation" value="true"/>
    <param name="use_tf_pose_start_estimate" value="false"/>
    <param name="pub_map_odom_transform" value="$(arg pub_map_odom_transform)"/>

    <!-- Map size / start point -->
    <param name="map_resolution" value="0.050"/>
    <param name="map_size" value="$(arg map_size)"/>
    <param name="map_start_x" value="0.5"/>
    <param name="map_start_y" value="0.5" />
    <param name="map_multi_res_levels" value="2" />

    <!-- Map update parameters -->
    <param name="update_factor_free" value="0.4"/>
    <param name="update_factor_occupied" value="0.9" />    
    <param name="map_update_distance_thresh" value="0.4"/>
    <param name="map_update_angle_thresh" value="0.06" />
    <param name="laser_z_min_value" value = "-1.0" />
    <param name="laser_z_max_value" value = "1.0" />

    <!-- Advertising config --> 
    <param name="advertise_map_service" value="true"/>

    <param name="scan_subscriber_queue_size" value="$(arg scan_subscriber_queue_size)"/>
    <param name="scan_topic" value="laser/scan"/>

    <param name="tf_map_scanmatch_transform_frame_name" value="$(arg tf_map_scanmatch_transform_frame_name)" />
  </node>
  <include file="$(find hector_geotiff)/launch/geotiff_mapper.launch"/>

</launch>