Bernhard's profile - activity

Now that I found the appropriate driver, which would be the codai_sick_s300 I encountered a new problem. This package apparently depends on a very specific other package called serial_port. My issue with all that is that for some reason the ROS pages of the codai version for the Standard and Advanced versions of the S300 are gone and the appropriate package is gone as well, can't get to it with the Waybackmachine either.

Can anyone tell me how to use this driver nevertheless, or where I can change this dependency to use a different serial driver?

So far I can only assume that it's somehow possible to automatically call the function which is executed when using that pose estimation button in rviz, I don't know how though.

No, AMCL is capapble of estimating the pose based on a given map, and current sensor input, take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhDZpiBm5gw

More like 2 weeks, but yeah. I still had the tab open though and it can't hurt to put this up here, also just in case somone with similar questions stumbles over this.

So when I understood you right you already have a saved map, and now you only want to load and locate yourself in that map? I'd recommend you to take a look at AMCL which is usually preinstalled, that should be able to do what you want.

Tried installing ROS (Hydro) on Kubuntu 12.04 and everything runs smooth out of the box, not that groovy would be any different, but as I said, for a proper answer, details are still missing.

This looks more like some kind of user error. But with that level of detail I doubt anyone can help you, try including more details like your exact installation steps, and the version of Kubuntu and ROS.

You should post your question in form of a comment to the post of the person you are trying to speak to instead of posting it as an answer, as your post is obviously a question, not an answer.

I'll be honest, I didn't bother to look enough yet, and wherever the features are mentioned, I didn't find them for myself yet. The one thing I know for sure is that with Hydro everything's catkinized. Also there is this list of included packages: http://www.ros.org/debbuild/hydro

Glad I could help, in fact I knew this problem since I made the exact same mistake when trying to install rviz for the first time :P

After attending the ROSCon several days ago I got the job to work with ROS in my company, which worked very well so far. Now my current project is to spark some ideas and show some possibilities, and one of the best ways to do that would be to plug one of our laser scanners (Sick S300) to a pc and show some raw data, or even work with it.

My plan is to use the cob_sick_s300 package which is already working to get the data. I have 1 issue currently and hope someone can help me:

1: Attaching the scanner to the PC: Unfortunately only the programming interface uses rs232, the data interface uses a bunch of other not directly pc compatible interfaces, one of them being rs422. As far as my knowledge goes on those interfaces rs485 is downwards compatible to rs422 and I happen to have access to an rs485->USB interface. Do you see this working when properly connected to the PC or might I run into more problems here?

Answered: Doesn't work, most likely due to the siemens converter interfering with the signal by own processing of the data. Edit: Well actually I made a bad mistake, I have an advanced version to work with which actually doesn't have an RS422 output... I carefully read that section of the manual but it seems that still wasn't careful enough

2: When I take the solution above, any clue how I can find the proper port I have to direct the s300 package towards? My searches here haven't really gotten me anywhere, maybe I missed out on some tutorial or information source here.

Answered: dmesg does work in order to find the right port.

3: Well I'm not quite through yet though. After setting up the scanner with the rs232 interface I made some final tests and got the conclusion that the Siemens interface (rs422<->rs485) doesn't work, noticed however that the SICK software can read out the raw data through the rs232 interface. So it should be possible to do that with ROS as well, right? I got a message that the scanner has been successfully opened, however I get the same message when only my USB<->RS232 connector is attached... Obviously ma data topics stay silent, though I don't know why or how to continue...

Answered: It is possible to access the data through the programming interface after all, I'll post a full answer.

4: As I can't accept my own answer yet anyways I may as well ask a last question here: Are there already finished packages for speaking with an SICK S300 Standard/Advanced? I can't seem to find any.

I now have updated my answer as well.

One thing I notice here is that the command is correct, but in the error output it says rviS, not rviZ. Sure you didn't accidentally put "sudo apt-get install ros-groovy-rvis" (with s instead of z) in as command and only wrote it right here?

Personally I think that depends on your reasons for the upgrade in general. Hydro should be released by the end of July (29th) unless there are further delays, so you'd be waiting just about a month longer.

If you don't intend to use any new features of hydro and if you don't care whether the packages of ROS are catkin or rosbuild I see no real need to wait for hydro. Just an assumption on my part, but I assume when you have custom packages it'll also be easier to stick to groovy first instead of going for hydro.

As of now the last suggested release date was the 29th July, beta freeze 29th june. I think the date is believable, but not set in stone yet.

Just a small addition to this answer. That's because the first (PointCloud2ConstPtr) is a pointer (Ptr), hence the *

Instead of putting "DESPERATE boy need help!" into the title of your question you should make a title that describes your actual problem, also try to use tags so that the people with knowledge about gazebo can find your question easier.

Well first of all things you are are definitely totally wrong here to ask that kind of question, as this place is all about robotics, not medicine...

As for your actual question, that depends on too many factors to just give a general answer, try asking in a correct place and with more details.

Ok so I finally got some data from the Scanner into the PC. Here are the answers to the left over questions:

1: I have the advanced version, which doesn't support RS422 output for any SICK S300 which was produced earlier than 2012. I just assumed that thanks to me not knowing that there was a change, since 2012 all S300 versions support RS422.

2: The data can be read through the programming interface indeed, there's at least an tutorial on the standard version which also applies to the advanced version: www.sharprobotica.com/2010/11/serial-communications-with-sick-s300-standard/comment-page-1/ On the same page in the comments there is a link to an adapted version, called codai_sick_s300. It is able to do the same as the cob_sick_s300 just for the programming interface per rs232

I had the same problem as you AG1617, you'll have to edit the file manually and fill in the correct path, usually the file is somewhere here /usr/include/eigen3/Eigen/core

I was thinking of using said beacons for total positioning, and I'm not sure how applicable SLAM is in my case, it will be a production environment. I will need to consider both options, but for now I should get the next step down so I can see which path to pursue.

I really could use some help to start with my first mapping project. So far I have a SICK S300 from which I get data like this:

header:

seq: 3814

stamp:

secs: 1370262735

nsecs: 263812610

frame_id: /base_laser_link

angle_min: -1.3526301384

angle_max: 1.3526301384

angle_increment: 0.00872664619237

time_increment: 0.000184842880117

scan_time: 0.0

range_min: 0.0

range_max: 100.0

ranges: [0.6100000143051147, 0.6100000143051147, [...] 1.7999999523162842, 1.7899999618530273, 1.7999999523162842, 1.7999999523162842]

intensities: [0.0, 0.0, 0.0, [...] 0.0, 0.0]

And I want to work with Octomap so I get a 2D map from projected map. I need only a 2D map actually, and SLAM is not relevant either as there will be seperate odometry devices. I only want to use things with either the BSD or the LGPL licence.

By now I understand the data format I have there, here's what I still don't get:

1. Is there a converter which can convert this data directly to pointcloud2 data?
2. If so, I can add seperate odometry data to that, right?
3. Where do I have to put the data (remapping of topics?) to get octomap or any other map system to work?