Using RTAB-MAP Path Planning for autonomous navigation in 3D

Posted by Harsha on
URL: http://official-rtab-map-forum.206.s1.nabble.com/Using-RTAB-MAP-Path-Planning-for-autonomous-navigation-in-3D-tp3303.html

 I have a ARDrone with a RGB-D camera attached on top of it in gazebo simulator. I am able to use rtabmap_ros to create a map of my room by moving the drone manually (using keyboard).  Now I need to make the mapping autonomous. For this I'll need to generate goals (I'll be using Frontier based Exploration for this) and I also need to be able to make the drone navigate to the goal autonomously. Can I do the navigation part just using RTAB-MAP?

 I see that when a goal is given to the topic 'rtabmap/goal' a corresponding global and local path is generated. But when I visualize the global path in RViz, the global path is passing through the spaces in between the the points of the map that is generated by RTAB-MAP (i.e. is through obstacles that are mapped). How do I do obstacle avoidance using the in-built path planner in RTAB-MAP?

If the global path is correct, and the local path gives waypoints along the local path, I can command the drone to move to the waypoints (the drone moves using a PID controller)

Could you also give a brief overview of how the global/local path planning in RTAB-MAP works?