Re: RTAB-Map on Visual Studio 2012 and stereo mapping example

Posted by matlabbe on
URL: http://official-rtab-map-forum.206.s1.nabble.com/RTAB-Map-on-Visual-Studio-2012-and-stereo-mapping-example-tp624p681.html

Hi,

1. You can't use the wheel encoder as ground truth. Generally, ground truths in indoor environments are recorded using external motion capture system (like a VICON). See RGB-D SLAM datasets for examples. For outdoor environments, they use a DGPS or a GPS+IMU with some manual corrections.

2. If you want to compare trajectories between wheel odometry and visual odometry, you may have to put the results in the same referential (e.g., in /base_link frame). See this tutorial about TF on a robot. If the camera is looking forward, you may not have to add a special transform between /base_link and /camera_link. In the stereo tutorial, the camera is looking down at ~30 degrees and the mapping is not in 2D, so a relative transform between the camera and the base of the robot is required so that visual odometry is in the base referential and not the camera referential.

3. The absolute trajectory error (ATE) or relative pose error (RPE) metrics are commonly used (see RGB-D SLAM datasets or KITTI datasets).

cheers