hector_slam/gmapping with T265 (odometry) and RPLidar

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Hello everybody

I am trying to make SLAM using a 2D laser scanner (RPLidar A1) supporting it with a Realsense camera T265, which provides an accurate odometry.

The arrangement of both devices is as follows:

The realsense ROS package provides two main frames: camera_odom_frame and camera_pose_frame. This last one is the one that moves around when the camera moves through the space. This is the tf tree created by the camera package:

I have tried to use these two devices with two SLAM packages: hector_slam and gmapping.

hector_slam

This package works well when carrying out SLAM without odometry. My problem comes when I try to include the odometry information. After launching the LIDAR and the camera packages, I launch hector_slam using the following launch file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
  <launch>
  <arg name="tf_map_scanmatch_transform_frame_name" default="scanmatcher_frame"/>

  <!-- <arg name="base_frame" default="base_footprint"/> -->
  <arg name="base_frame" default="base_link"/>

  <!-- <arg name="odom_frame" default="nav"/> -->
  <arg name="odom_frame" default="camera_odom_frame"/>

  <arg name="pub_map_odom_transform" default="true"/>
  <arg name="scan_subscriber_queue_size" default="5"/>
  <arg name="scan_topic" default="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="$(arg scan_subscriber_queue_size)"/>
    <param name="scan_topic" value="$(arg scan_topic)"/>

    <!-- Debug parameters -->
    <!--
      <param name="output_timing" value="false"/>
      <param name="pub_drawings" value="true"/>
      <param name="pub_debug_output" value="true"/>
    -->
    <param name="tf_map_scanmatch_transform_frame_name" value="$(arg tf_map_scanmatch_transform_frame_name)" />
  </node>

   <node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="map_to_camera_odom_broadcaster" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 map camera_odom_frame 100"/>
   <node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="base_to_camera_broadcaster" args="0 0.05 -0.10 3.1415/2 0 0 base_link camera_pose_frame 100"/>
   <node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="base_to_laser_broadcaster" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 base_link laser 100"/>
</launch>

Note the tf nodes launched at the end of the file. This launcher throws this error:

[ERROR] [1591184110.747014370]: Transform failed during publishing of map_odom transform: Could not find a connection between 'camera_odom_frame' and 'base_link' because they are not part of the same tree.Tf has two or more ...