Re: Beta testers wanted for iPhone/iPad with LiDAR

Posted by matlabbe on
URL: http://official-rtab-map-forum.206.s1.nabble.com/Beta-testers-wanted-for-iPhone-iPad-with-LiDAR-tp7842p8178.html

Hi,

It depends on the application. For 3D hand-held scanning, this is indeed recommended to use the iOS app or the Google Tango app. The downside is that you need a supported phone with LiDAR or TOF camera, and it is not also ROS integrated.

Why rtabmap is working so well on those phones is because they have a good visual inertial odometry approach AND synchronized (or correctly timestamped for Tango) depth camera AND depth camera is a LiDAR or TOF, not stereo. On ubuntu/ros side, it is possible to find an open source visual Inertial odometry approach with the right compatible hardware (e.g., T265), then afterwards you need to find synchronized RGB and TOF cameras.

Note also Tango/iOS visual inertial odometry won't work in the dark (will lso drift in textureless environments), so wheel odometry / lidar odometry could be an advantage in some cases using rtabmap on ros.

cheers,
Mathieu