how to aggregate several PointCloud2 messages into one?

edit

I ended up using octomap_server for aggregating the pointcloud messages and used the frame_id as map. I converted laser_assembler to generate PointCloud2 messages, but I'm not sure it works. Regardless, here is the reworked laser_scan_assembler.cpp and periodic_snapshotter.cpp, respectively, for anyone who stumbles upon this thread:

#include "tf/transform_listener.h"
#include "tf/message_filter.h"
#include <ros/ros.h>
#include "laser_geometry/laser_geometry.h"
#include "sensor_msgs/LaserScan.h"
#include "sensor_msgs/PointCloud2.h"
#include "laser_assembler/base_assembler.h"
#include "filters/filter_chain.h"

using namespace laser_geometry;
using namespace std ;

namespace laser_assembler
{

/**
 * \brief Maintains a history of laser scans and generates a point cloud upon request
 */
class LaserScanAssembler
{
public:
  LaserScanAssembler() : filter_chain_("sensor_msgs::LaserScan")
  {
    // ***** Set Laser Projection Method *****
    private_ns_.param("ignore_laser_skew", ignore_laser_skew_, false);

    // configure the filter chain from the parameter server
    filter_chain_.configure("filters", private_ns_);

    // Have different callbacks, depending on whether or not we want to ignore laser skews.
    tf_filter_ = new tf::MessageFilter<sensor_msgs::LaserScan>(scan_sub_, *tf_, "base_link", 10);
    tf_filter_->registerCallback( boost::bind(&LaserScanAssembler::scanCallback, this, _1) );
    skew_scan_sub_ = n_.subscribe("scan", 10, &LaserScanAssembler::scanCallback, this);
  tf_filter_ = NULL;
  }

  ~LaserScanAssembler()
  {

  }

  unsigned int GetPointsInScan(const sensor_msgs::LaserScan& scan)
  {
    return (scan.ranges.size ());
  }

  void ConvertToCloud(const string& fixed_frame_id, const sensor_msgs::LaserScan& scan_in, sensor_msgs::PointCloud2& cloud_out)
  {
    // apply filters on laser scan
    filter_chain_.update (scan_in, scan_filtered_);

    // convert laser scan to point cloud
      int mask = laser_geometry::channel_option::Intensity +
             laser_geometry::channel_option::Distance +
             laser_geometry::channel_option::Index +
             laser_geometry::channel_option::Timestamp;
      projector_.transformLaserScanToPointCloud (fixed_frame_id, scan_filtered_, cloud_out, *tf_, mask);
    return;
  }

  void scanCallback(const sensor_msgs::LaserScanConstPtr& laser_scan)
  {
    if (!ignore_laser_skew_)
    {
      ros::Duration cur_tolerance = ros::Duration(laser_scan->time_increment * laser_scan->ranges.size());
      if (cur_tolerance > max_tolerance_)
      {
    ROS_DEBUG("Upping tf tolerance from [%.4fs] to [%.4fs]", max_tolerance_.toSec(), cur_tolerance.toSec());
    assert(tf_filter_);
    tf_filter_->setTolerance(cur_tolerance);
    max_tolerance_ = cur_tolerance;
      }
      tf_filter_->add(laser_scan);
    }
  }

private:
  bool ignore_laser_skew_;
  laser_geometry::LaserProjection projector_;
  tf::TransformListener* tf_ ;
  tf::MessageFilter<sensor_msgs::LaserScan>* tf_filter_;
  message_filters::Subscriber<sensor_msgs::LaserScan> scan_sub_;

  ros::Subscriber skew_scan_sub_;
  ros::Duration max_tolerance_;   // The longest tolerance we've needed on a scan so far
  ros::NodeHandle n_;
  ros::NodeHandle private_ns_;

  filters::FilterChain<sensor_msgs::LaserScan> filter_chain_;
  mutable sensor_msgs::LaserScan scan_filtered_;

};

}

using namespace laser_assembler ;

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  ros::init(argc, argv, "laser_scan_assembler");
  LaserScanAssembler pc_assembler;
  ros::spin();

  return 0;
}

    #include <cstdio>
#include <ros/ros.h>

// Services
#include "laser_assembler/AssembleScans.h"
#include "laser_assembler/AssembleScans2.h"

// Messages
#include "sensor_msgs/PointCloud.h"
#include "sensor_msgs/PointCloud2.h"


/***
 * This a simple test app that requests a point cloud from the
 * point_cloud_assembler every 4 seconds, and then publishes the
 * resulting data
 */
namespace laser_assembler
{

class PeriodicSnapshotter
{

public:

  PeriodicSnapshotter()
  {
    // Create a publisher for the clouds that we assemble
    pub_ = n_.advertise<sensor_msgs::PointCloud2> ("assembled_cloud", 1);

    // Create the service client for calling the assembler
    client_ = n_.serviceClient<AssembleScans2>("assemble_scans");

    // Start the timer that will trigger the processing loop (timerCallback)
    timer_ = n_.createTimer(ros::Duration(1,0), &PeriodicSnapshotter::timerCallback, this);

    // Need to track if we've called the timerCallback at least once
    first_time_ = true;
  }

  void timerCallback(const ros::TimerEvent& e)
  {

    // We don't want to build a cloud the first callback, since we we
    //   don't have a start and end time yet
    if (first_time_)
    {
      first_time_ = false;
      return;
    }

    // Populate our service request ...