RP-LiDAR on TurtleBot2 with ROS INDIGO

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References

http://www.slamtec.com/en/Lidar/A1

https://github.com/robopeak/rplidar_ros/wiki

http://wiki.ros.org/rplidar

LiDAR integration on the TurtleBot2

Package installation

Download the catkin packages

Note that '~/catkin_ws' is the directory of catkin workspace in your computer. Adapt the syntax wrt the workspace setting of your machine.

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/roboticslab-fr/rplidar-turtlebot2.git

Build the rplidar package and configure new installed package:

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make
rospack profile

Package update

Do the following if you want to update the package from the git repository:

Move to the ~/catkin_ws/src/rplidar-turtlebot2 folder

Pull the new updated files from the github repository

git pull

Compile again

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make

Setup rules for USB connection

Move to the script folder of rplidar_ros package.

roscd rplidar_ros/scripts

Make the script executable.

chmod +x create_udev_rules.sh

Launch the script provided in the rplidar_ros package and it will automatically setup the rules.

./create_udev_rules.sh
enter user password when prompted

Test the LiDAR

Do the following to test if your RP-LiDAR is correctly installed on your TurtleBot

On the turtlebot netbook

roslaunch turtlebot_le2i rplidar_minimal.launch

On the workstation

roslaunch turtlebot_le2i view_robot_rplidar.launch

Test LiDAR + Kinect

Do the following to test if your RP-LiDAR is correctly installed alongside your Kinect RGB-D sensor on your TurtleBot

On the turtlebot netbook

roslaunch turtlebot_le2i rplidar_minimal.launch
roslaunch turtlebot_le2i rplidar_3dsensor.launch

On the workstation

roslaunch turtlebot_le2i view_robot_rplidar_kinect.launch

Use the LiDAR with the ROS By Example code

We give here an example on how to start the TurtleBot with the RP-LiDAR and perform navigation and localization using a map and amcl.

ROS uses the amcl package to localize the robot within an existing map using the current scan data coming from the RP-LiDAR.

Refer to the following chapters of the ROS By Example vol.1 book for further details:

• 8.5 Navigation and Localization using a Map and amcl
• 8.5.2 Using amcl with a Real Robot

On the turtlebot netbook

Remapping is mandatory to ensure the compatibility with ROS By Example vol1. source code examples (examples are publishing Twist messages to /cmd_vel topic). It is smarter to use the Command Velocity Multiplexer of the TurtleBot2 instead of publishing directly to "mobile_base/commands/velocity"

roslaunch turtlebot_le2i remap_rplidar_minimal.launch

We assume that you have already created a map of the environment called laboratory_map.yaml in the directory .../rbx1_nav/maps Launch the tb_demo_amcl.launch file with the map as an argument:

roslaunch rbx1_nav tb_demo_amcl.launch map:=laboratory_map.yaml

On the workstation

Start RViz with the included navigation test configuration file:

rosrun rviz rviz -d `rospack find rbx1_nav`/nav_test.rviz