Not possible to visualize traversability costmap

[paucarrecardona]

First and foremost, thanks for your research and for publishing it available.

I'm trying to visalize the traversability map but it seems the RViz map is just a white grid. No TFs are published and there are a few points in the readme that do not work.

Can you help us with that?

These are the following problems using the Docker machine:

• The point 6. "Run preprocess tools (in 3 terminals)" does not work

Neither the Tool folder nor the file robot_1.py exists The files filter_robot_1.launch also do not exist.

• The point 7. "Run loop detection module" does not work

  # rosrun disco_ros main.py
  /opt/ros/noetic/bin/rosrun: /home/LoopDetection/src/disco_ros/main.py: /home/client/miniconda3/envs/py3-mink/bin/python3: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
  /opt/ros/noetic/bin/rosrun: line 150: /home/LoopDetection/src/disco_ros/main.py: Success

• The point 9. "Run preprocess tools (in 3 terminals)" does not work

cd Costmap && source devel/setup.bash
roslaunch move_base move_base_server.launch

Produces the following error:

> roslaunch move_base move_base_server.launch
RLException: [move_base_server.launch] is neither a launch file in package [move_base] nor is [move_base] a launch file name
The traceback for the exception was written to the log file

• TFs not working I can't see any tf nor tf_static being published.

What would be the minimal setup to be able to see the traversability costmap on RViz?

To launch the Docker machine and being able to launch RViz is:

xhost +
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
docker run --mount type=bind,source=$HOME/Downloads,target=/bags/ \
    --runtime=nvidia \
    --cap-add=SYS_PTRACE \
    --security-opt=seccomp:unconfined \
    --security-opt=apparmor:unconfined \
    --privileged -e NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=all --gpus all \
    --device-cgroup-rule "c 81:* rmw" \
    --device-cgroup-rule "c 189:* rmw" \
    --security-opt apparmor:unconfined \
    --net=host \
    --env="DISPLAY" \
    --volume="$HOME/.Xauthority:/home/ros/.Xauthority:rw" \
    -exec -it docker.io/maverickp/mrslam:noetic   /bin/bash

[MaverickPeter]

@paucarrecardona, Thanks for your following. I've updated the docker image and README.

[paucarrecardona]

Thanks @MaverickPeter ! I'll test ASAP

[paucarrecardona]

@MaverickPeter First of all, thank you so much for quickly tackling the problem and updating the repo.

I pulled the latest version and I tried the following: 1- "Quick Demo" from the Readme.md did not show any data in RViz, just an empty grid 2- "Full Usage" playing bag loop-22.bag, and only using robot_2 scripts. This also did not show anything beyond an empty grid in RVIz:

I cannot see any TF being published either.

After playing the two bags, and running rostopic list I get the following topics:

/robot_1/imu
/robot_1/pointcloud
/robot_1/submap
/robot_2/Laser_map
/robot_2/Odometry
/robot_2/aft_mapped_path
/robot_2/aft_mapped_to_init
/robot_2/aft_mapped_to_init_high_frec
/robot_2/cloud_effected
/robot_2/cloud_registered
/robot_2/cloud_registered_body
/robot_2/dense_mapping
/robot_2/disco
/robot_2/elevation_map_raw
/robot_2/global_octomap
/robot_2/global_point
/robot_2/history_point
/robot_2/image_rect
/robot_2/imu
/robot_2/keyframe_pc
/robot_2/laser_cloud_corner_last
/robot_2/laser_cloud_flat
/robot_2/laser_cloud_less_flat
/robot_2/laser_cloud_less_sharp
/robot_2/laser_cloud_map
/robot_2/laser_cloud_sharp
/robot_2/laser_cloud_surf_last
/robot_2/laser_cloud_surround
/robot_2/laser_odom_path
/robot_2/laser_odom_to_init
/robot_2/laser_remove_points
/robot_2/local_octomap
/robot_2/map_saving
/robot_2/merged_cloud_registered
/robot_2/merged_keyframe
/robot_2/new_keyframe
/robot_2/opt_keyframes
/robot_2/opt_map
/robot_2/orthomosaic
/robot_2/path
/robot_2/pointcloud
/robot_2/submap
/robot_2/velodyne_cloud_2
/robot_2/velodyne_cloud_3
/robot_2/velodyne_cloud_registered
/robot_2/visual_map
/robot_2/visualpoints
/robot_2/voxel_grid/output
/robot_3/submap
/rosout
/rosout_agg
/tf
/tf_static
/tmp2_2g
/tmp_2g
/voxel_grid_2g_x/parameter_descriptions
/voxel_grid_2g_x/parameter_updates
/voxel_grid_2g_y/parameter_descriptions
/voxel_grid_2g_y/parameter_updates
/voxel_grid_2g_z/parameter_descriptions
/voxel_grid_2g_z/parameter_updates

Can you help me to visualize the traversabilty costmap?

[MaverickPeter]

@paucarrecardona Based on the topic list you provided, I guess the global manager and costmap converter are not working. You may need to check these modules. Also, loop-22.bag is corresponding to the robot_1 scripts. As for costmap visualization, you need to add a map topic and choose the global_costmap topic.

[paucarrecardona]

@MaverickPeter Thanks for your help. I found this method that created the subscriptions: https://github.com/MaverickPeter/MR_SLAM/blob/main/Mapping/src/elevation_mapping_periodical/elevation_mapping/src/ElevationMapping.cpp#L100

It seems it is never called and thus the subscriptions are not created. Shall this method and all their callbacks be removed from the code or is the method supposed to be called?

[MaverickPeter]

@paucarrecardona In the quick demo, the elevation mapping is not called because the elevation map is preprocessed in the provided bags. You can choose /global_manager/merged_map to visualize the global elevation map. As for full usage, the elevation mapping should be called to process the incoming lidar points.

[paucarrecardona]

@MaverickPeter Thanks I'm trying to figure out why I can't generate elevation maps. I stumbled upon something I don't understand and I was wondering if you'd be able to help me to understand the code. As far as I understand, void ElevationMapping::processpoints(pcl::PointCloud::ConstPtr pointCloud) is the main method to compute the elevation map. As far as I understand, the height shall be stored in float point_height[point_num];

But after the method is finished, I can't see how the height/elevation is used. I assume the elevation is stored in the GPU, specifically in device float *map_elevation;

And to use the elevation, one needs to use void Map_feature(int length, float elevation, float var, int colorR, int colorG, int colorB, float rough, float slope, float traver, float *intensity) which pulls the elevation from the GPU and copies in the CPU. This method is called in Mapfeature(length, elevation, var, point_colorR, point_colorG, point_colorB, rough, slope, traver, intensity); . The elevation is copied into float elevation[length * length]; which is only used in orthoImage = map_.show(timeStamp, robot_name, trackPointTransformed_x, trackPointTransformedy, length, elevation, var, point_colorR, point_colorG, point_colorB, rough, slope, traver, intensity);

Is then orthoImage = map_.show(timeStamp, robot_name, trackPointTransformed_x, trackPointTransformed_y, length_, elevation, var, point_colorR, point_colorG, point_colorB, rough, slope, traver, intensity); the generation of the elevation + traversability map?

[MaverickPeter]

@paucarrecardona You're right about the generation process. After map.show(), the elevation and traversability are transferred into map defined in ElevationMap.cpp which is further visualized using visualPointMap() function. This elevation_mapping is modified from GEM In my experience, this might be some configuration problem rather than a code issue,