How to 3D represent model in ROS

asked 2013-07-18 04:46:43 -0500

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Hello people, I just want to have some basic information about this because I am new to ROS. I tried to search it on ROS and on internet but could not find a similar question.

I have to represent a model of different satellites(around 15) using features from Ros. The parameters of the sattelites(coordinates, speed e.t.c) are constantly changing overtime and I have to represent their movement in 3D. Can you please tell me how can I represent all of them graphically while all of them are moving relative to time. Somebody told me that I can do it through rviz or rqt but I am not quite sure. Any help would be appreciated.

answered 2013-07-18 05:23:03 -0500

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The usual way would be to use tf. Add some rviz displays for your satellites, e.g. Marker or whatever you have for a model. Those should only the satellites in their local frame, e.g. /sat1/base_link (or whatever is in the center).

Next you write some publisher node that computes the coordinates of the satellites and publishes their position, e.g. the transformation from a fixed frame like /world to /sat1/base_link through a tf broadcaster.

Within rviz you select /world as the fixed frame and all satellites should be displayed correctly moving about.

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Hey dornhege, When I do rostopic echo /mytopic I constantly get the output of the satellite positioning. So it tells that it is publishing the data to the node. How can I use this node to display the information in tf. Do I have to write a tf broadcaster or publisher for it and then add the tf package in launch file and run it.

Gudjohnson ( 2013-07-23 04:05:40 -0500 )edit

Basically include a tf broadcaster in the node you are running that publishes to /mytopic. Instead (or in addition) supply this information to tf. Even without the models, the TF display in rviz can show your that everything works.

dornhege ( 2013-07-23 04:08:54 -0500 )edit

@dornhege I still have a lot of problems. Is there any example on ros wiki or somewhere which incorporates this.

Gudjohnson ( 2013-07-29 02:33:43 -0500 )edit

There is a tutorial for writing a tf broadcaster in the tf package. You can start with that, set it up correctly and verify using the TF display of rviz. Once that works it should be easy to swap in your actual satellite models.

dornhege ( 2013-07-30 00:16:12 -0500 )edit

@dornhege I did as you told me, but I still have no succeeded in outputting the satellite data on the tf. I asked the question with details here (http://answers.ros.org/question/71503/when-do-i-need-a-tf-listener/) but could not reach the solution. Can you please help me here.

Gudjohnson ( 2013-08-05 00:26:08 -0500 )edit

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