RTAB-Map Navigation with UAV

[JarrenB]

Hello,

I'm new to this stuff but I'm looking to simulate a drone that can navigate to specific points of interest avoiding obstacles as it goes. I have a drone simulated with a depth camera and IMU using ROS and Gazebo. I have RTAB-Map running, but the navigation in 3D doesn't seem to work. My understanding is it's navigating system is meant for 2D and you need something like octomap to do 3D navigation.

My two questions are
What value does octomap provide that allows us to navigate in 3D? Basically why is it necessary? Can I still use the goal topic to navigate to points through rtabmap?
and
I have RTAB-Map running but could not get it working with VIO. I had to use odometry from my simulation environment, which will not be allowed for the project I'm doing. I have more information regarding that question on this github.

https://github.com/introlab/rtabmap/issues/990

In short, I have a working-ish mapping algorithm through rtabmap, but need to get 3D path planning for a UAV.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

- Jarren

[matlabbe]

You may want an OctoMap if you want to plan 3D trajectories.

It is possible to use 2D navigation with a drone, assuming it stays always at the same height. See for example https://github.com/matlabbe/rtabmap_drone_example

For 3D navigation, move_it or OMPL libraries may be useful references.

cheers,
Mathieu

[JarrenB]

Hi,
I started on this implementation and I'm working on it now. I have decided to use RTABMAP for pose data, Octomap to map the area and MoveIt for 3d path planning. I want to use VIO with rtabmapo but I am getting TF tree errors. As soon as I change to VIO true the tf tree connects to odom and not to world. How can I set up RTABMAP so that all TF trees are connected.  I belive something like this.

 robot frames<-World<- Map ->odom

Thanks for any guidance.

[matlabbe]

Your tf tree should look like:

world- > map -> odom -> robot frames