Kinect2 + robot odometry launchfile

[Dr_Hoschi]

hi

I can run rtabmap with kinect2 (kinect2_bridge) as described in the tutorial "RGB-D Hand-Held Mapping With a Kinect" and it is working fine.

Now I want to use the kinect2 with my robot like it is described in the tutorial "Kinect + Odometry + Fake 2D laser from Kinect". But the kinect there is the old version. I tried to modify the launchfile to the kinect2 but it won't work. Is there a launchfile for this robot-type for kinect2? (The robot itself with odometry etc is running and other mapping system are also working). Or what changes must be done to get "rgbd_mapping_kinect2.launch" working with robot odometry and disabled handheld-type scanning.

Thx.

[simon.xm.lee]

Hi,

This is my launch file for "kinectv2 + robot odometry". Maybe it can help you.
simon_rgbd_mapping_kinect2.launch

Regards.

[Dr_Hoschi]

Thank you very much. Now its running.

I changed the odometry topic to my robot odometry. The odometry window in rbtabmap viewer is black. So can I assume that rgbd odometry is not be used then? Is it good not to use this and how can I check in what way rtabmap is handling my robot odometry?

In the setup guide tutorial a fake 2d scanner is used. Why should this enhance the quality of the mapping, when rbtabmap has anyway all the data?

[simon.xm.lee]

Hi Hoschi,

Q: So can I assume that rgbd odometry is not be used then?
Ans: I think "Yes". According to my understanding, you can use only one kind of odometries(rgbd odometry, stereo odometry, or robot odometry).

Q: Is it good not to use this and how can I check in what way rtabmap is handling my robot odometry?
Ans: I cannot answer this question.

Q: In the setup guide tutorial a fake 2d scanner is used. Why should this enhance the quality of the mapping, when rbtabmap has anyway all the data?
Ans: I think the 2D laser_scan data could improve the quality of odometry by ICP(Iterative Closest Point).
The "Setup RTAB-Map on Your Robot!" page in tutorial mention that
RGBD/NeighborLinkRefining: Correct odometry using the input laser topic using ICP.


Regards.

[matlabbe]

Hi Hoschi,

make sure you don't have rgbd_odometry running if you are using robot odometry. Using fake laser scan from kinect won't give better maps. It could be used for local costmap of move_base though (faster than processing the whole kinect cloud), and rtabmap can create 2d maps faster with a fake laser scan. If you have a real laser rangefinder (>=180 degress of field of view), then there is an advantage to use it with rtabmap (more accurate loop closures and odometry correction if RGBD/NeighborLinkRefining=true and Reg/Strategy=1).

A black odometry window in rabmapviz doesn't mean that rgbd_odometry is not used, it just means that rtabmapviz's "subscribe_depth" parameter is false or it is not receiving camera topics. Use "rqt_graph" to see all nodes running. If you are using rtabmap.launch, "visual_odometry" argument should be set to false to not use rgbd_odometry.

cheers,
Mathieu