Robot Localization Wrong Settings or Odom message?

edit

BLUF (Bottom line up front): Using ackermann style odometry only, Robot_localization isn't providing an /odometry/filtered output.

Machine: Ubuntu 16 & ROS Kinetic

Details: I have an ackermann style vehicle with simulated sensors running in Unity and broadcasting to ROS.

For odometry, I wrote a bicycle model script to estimate position, orientation, and velocity. I publish this to /odometry/bicycle and its a child of /map. That looks like:

odom_quat = tf.transformations.quaternion_from_euler(0, 0, veh.yaw)
# first, we'll publish the transform over tf
odom_broadcaster.sendTransform(
            (veh.x, veh.y, 0.),
            odom_quat,
            current_time,
            "bicycle",
            "map"
            )
# next, we'll publish the odometry message over ROS
odom = Odometry()
odom.header.stamp = current_time
odom.header.frame_id = "map"

# set the position
odom.pose.pose = Pose(Point(veh.x, veh.y, 0.), Quaternion(*odom_quat))
odom.pose.covariance = [0.01,  0.0,  0.0,  0.0,  0.0,  0.0,
                        0.0,  0.01,  0.0,  0.0,  0.0,  0.0,
                        0.0,   0.0, 0.01,  0.0,  0.0,  0.0,
                        0.0,   0.0,  0.0,  0.1,  0.0,  0.0,
                        0.0,   0.0,  0.0,  0.0,  0.1,  0.0,
                        0.0,   0.0,  0.0,  0.0,  0.0,  0.1]
# set the velocity
odom.child_frame_id = "bicycle"
odom.twist.twist = Twist(Vector3(veh.xdot, veh.ydot, 0), Vector3(0, 0, veh.yawdot))
odom.twist.covariance = [0.01,  0.00,  0.00,  0.00,  0.00,  0.00,
                         0.00,  0.01,  0.00,  0.00,  0.00,  0.00,
                         0.00,  0.00,  0.01,  0.00,  0.00,  0.00,
                         0.00,  0.00,  0.00,  0.10,  0.00,  0.00,
                         0.00,  0.00,  0.00,  0.00,  0.10,  0.00,
                         0.00,  0.00,  0.00,  0.00,  0.00,  0.10]
# publish the message
odom_pub.publish(odom)

Some common errors I've read about include having a forward slash (/) before the tf. I don't think I have that issue.

I also have a simulated IMU broadcasting to /imu_data, and gps broadcasted to /gps/fix. I will probably have questions on them later, but right now I want to focus on filtering just the odometry message. Ideally I want to recreate the dual EKF setup described on the robot localization page.

When setting up the EKF for just odometry, I'm not getting an odometry filtered message. Diagnostics does give me an error about erroneous settings.

Odometry message:

header: 
  seq: 66
  stamp: 
    secs: 1554917950
    nsecs:  73329925
  frame_id: "map"
child_frame_id: "bicycle"
pose: 
  pose: 
    position: 
      x: 0.0
      y: 0.0
      z: 0.0
    orientation: 
      x: 0.0
      y: 0.0
      z: 0.0
      w: 1.0
  covariance: [0.01, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.01, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.01, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.1, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 ...