Running rtabmap gui visualizes kinect but rtabmap_ros launch doesn't

[lmelvix]

Apologies upfront for I am a noob in rtabmap and ros. I am trying to perform mapping using rtabmap using sensor data from Microsoft Kinect. I am able to do this via RTABMAP GUI interface but I want to execute this from ROS for my project work.

I launched kinect using freenect via this command : roslaunch freenect_launch freenect.launch

and launched code given below to launch rtab and its visualizer to map using kinect data. But I am just getting a blank screen on the visualizer though RQT map shows the node connections are proper and there is data published from the kinect node.

Not sure what I am missing here. Any help would be highly appreciated.

Launch File :

<launch>
  <arg name="localization"              default="false"/>
  <arg name="rgbd_odometry"             default="false"/>
  <arg name="args"                      default="--delete_db_on_start"/>
  <arg name="rtabmapviz"                default="true"/>
  <arg name="wait_for_transform"        default="0.2"/>
  <group ns="rtabmap">
    <node name="rtabmap" pkg="rtabmap_ros"              type="rtabmap"  output="screen" args="$(arg args)">
          <param name="frame_id"                        type="string"   value="base_link"/>
          <param name="odom_frame_id"                   type="string"   value="odom"/>
          <param name="wait_for_transform_duration"     type="double"   value="$(arg wait_for_transform)"/>
          <param name="subscribe_depth"                 type="bool"     value="true"/>
          <param name="subscribe_scan"                  type="bool"     value="false"/>

          <remap from="odom"                            to="odom"/>
          <remap from="rgb/image"                       to="/camera/rgb/image_raw"/>
          <remap from="depth/image"                     to="/camera/depth_registered/image_raw"/>
          <remap from="rgb/camera_info"                 to="/camera/rgb/camera_info"/>

          <remap from="grid_map"                        to="/map"/>
          <param name="RGBD/ProximityBySpace"           type="string"   value="true"/>
          <param name="RGBD/OptimizeFromGraphEnd"       type="string"   value="false"/>
          <param name="Kp/MaxDepth"                     type="string"   value="4.0"/>
          <param name="Reg/Strategy"                    type="string"   value="1"/>
          <param name="Icp/CoprrespondenceRatio"        type="string"   value="0.3"/>
          <param name="Vis/MinInliers"                  type="string"   value="5"/>
          <param name="Vis/InlierDistance"              type="string"   value="0.1"/>    
          <param name="RGBD/AngularUpdate"              type="string"   value="0.1"/>    
          <param name="RGBD/LinearUpdate"               type="string"   value="0.1"/>   
          <param name="Rtabmap/TimeThr"                 type="string"   value="700"/>
          <param name="Mem/RehearsalSimilarity"         type="string"   value="0.30"/>
          <param name="Optimizer/Slam2D"                type="string"   value="true"/>
          <param name="Reg/Force3DoF"                   type="string"   value="true"/>

          <param if="$(arg localization)"       name="Mem/IncrementalMemory" type="string" value="false"/>
          <param unless="$(arg localization)"   name="Mem/IncrementalMemory" type="string" value="true"/>
          <param name="Mem/InitWMWithAllNodes"  type="string"   value="$(arg localization)"/>
    </node>

    <node if="$(arg rgbd_odometry)" pkg="rtabmap_ros" type="rgbd_odometry" name="rgbd_odometry" output="screen">
      <param name="frame_id"                    type="string" value="base_link"/>
      <param name="wait_for_transform_duration" type="double" value="$(arg wait_for_transform)"/>
      <param name="Reg/Force3DoF"               type="string" value="true"/>
      <param name="Vis/InlierDistance"          type="string" value="0.05"/>
      <remap from="rgb/image"       to="/camera/rgb/image_rect_color"/>
      <remap from="depth/image"     to="/camera/depth_registered/image_raw"/>
      <remap from="rgb/camera_info" to="/camera/rgb/camera_info"/>
    </node>

    <node if="$(arg rtabmapviz)" pkg="rtabmap_ros" type="rtabmapviz" name="rtabmapviz"
                args="-d $(find rtabmap_ros)/launch/config/rgbd_gui.ini" output="screen">
      <param name="subscribe_depth"             type="bool"     value="true"/>
      <param name="subscribe_scan"              type="bool"     value="false"/>
      <param name="frame_id"                    type="string"   value="base_link"/>
      <param name="wait_for_transform_duration" type="double"   value="$(arg wait_for_transform)"/>
      <remap from="rgb/image"       to="/camera/rgb/image_rect_color"/>
      <remap from="depth/image"     to="/camera/depth_registered/image_raw"/>
      <remap from="rgb/camera_info" to="/camera/rgb/camera_info"/>
    </node>
  </group>
</launch>

with regards
Lenord Melvix
[e-mail]

[matlabbe]

Hi,

To get started on ROS, I recommend to read this small tutorial, which reproduces the same results as the standalone app but under ROS.

From this tutorial:

$ roslaunch freenect_launch freenect.launch depth_registration:=true
$ roslaunch rtabmap_ros rgbd_mapping.launch rtabmap_args:="--delete_db_on_start"

For RVIZ example, use this instead:
$ roslaunch rtabmap_ros rgbd_mapping.launch rtabmap_args:="--delete_db_on_start" rviz:=true rtabmapviz:=false

cheers,
Mathieu

[lmelvix]

Thanks Mathieu ! The issue was that : I was launching freenect without setting depth_registration to true. Fixing that works.

Really appreciate your help

with regards
Lenord Melvix