view_robot.launch crashes on hydro (ubuntu 12.04.4)

[kjeremy]

roslaunch husky_viz view_robot.launch

setting /run_id to 55abae76-935c-11e3-aaa4-000c290ae390
process[rosout-1]: started with pid [54530]
started core service [/rosout]
process[interactive_markers-2]: started with pid [54542]
process[joint_state_publisher-3]: started with pid [54560]
process[rviz-4]: started with pid [54561]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/ros/hydro/lib/joint_state_publisher/joint_state_publisher", line 327, in <module>
    jsp = JointStatePublisher()
  File "/opt/ros/hydro/lib/joint_state_publisher/joint_state_publisher", line 25, in __init__
    robot = xml.dom.minidom.parseString(description).getElementsByTagName('robot')[0]
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/dom/minidom.py", line 1930, in parseString
    return expatbuilder.parseString(string)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py", line 940, in parseString
    return builder.parseString(string)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py", line 223, in parseString
    parser.Parse(string, True)
TypeError: must be string or read-only buffer, not None

[mikepurvis]

Hi Jeremy— the view_robot.launch launcher is designed to be used with a separately-launched robot or simulator. It looks like there was no robot description found, hence the crash in rviz.

If you only want to view the robot model in isolation, try view_model.launch.

[kjeremy]

Thanks. view_model.launch is resulting in a white model.

The RobotModel shows a Status:Error with: back_left_wheel: No transform from [back_left_wheel] to [odom]

I also see a Global Status: Error, Fixed Frame[odom] does not exist.

[mikepurvis]

Try setting the rviz frame to base_link from odom.