3D Underwater Lidar | Project DAVE

[utterances-bot]

3D Underwater Lidar | Project DAVE

Wiki/Tutorial Documents for Project DAVE

https://field-robotics-lab.github.io/dave.doc/contents/dave_sensors/3D-Underwater-Lidar/

[krauwu]

i have installed the source in https://github.com/Field-Robotics-Lab/dave.git but can't find the file uw_lidar_standalone.launch

[askvyas]

Hello,
Can I work on this issue?
Can you help me out with setup steps and any other requirements?

[mabelzhang]

Thanks @askvyas!

For this issue, I just took a look, the uw_lidar_standalone.launch file is in a different repository, in
https://github.com/Field-Robotics-Lab/nps_uw_sensors_gazebo

That repository is not in the dave_sim.repos files in https://github.com/Field-Robotics-Lab/dave/tree/master/extras/repos
I'm not sure if it was removed at some point.
It IS in the .repos files in versions directory though, e.g.

dave/extras/repos/versions/v3.1.0.repos

Lines 22 to 25 in 9387f81

	dave/nps_uw_sensors_gazebo:
	type: git
	url: https://github.com/Field-Robotics-Lab/nps_uw_sensors_gazebo.git
	version: v3.1.0

So to resolve this issue, there are 2 options.
One is that we just add the repo to the dave_sim.repos file. I don't know why it isn't there already, if it was intentionally removed at some point.
The other option, which is simpler for now, is to a line to the tutorial, in the Prerequisites section here https://field-robotics-lab.github.io/dave.doc/contents/dave_sensors/3D-Underwater-Lidar/#prerequisites , telling the user to check out that repo if they haven't already.
To modify the documentation, its source code is in https://github.com/Field-Robotics-Lab/dave.doc (we should add that to DAVE's main README too... I haven't gotten around to that. Update: opened #281).

To test and run it, you can find installation instructions on the documentation site https://field-robotics-lab.github.io/dave.doc/contents/installation/Installation/
For things that go into the repo, we recommend using the Docker environment (Option B), because that rules out any inconsistencies across developers' local setups, when things don't work for one person and works for another.

Let me know if you have questions or if anything is unclear!

@woensug-choi Do you know why nps_uw_sensors_gazebo isn't in dave_sim.repos? Was it intentionally removed at some point? Should we add it to that file?

[askvyas]

Thank you, @mabelzhang , for the response! I'm new to this, so it'll take me a bit of time to go through everything and set up the environment. I'll reach out again once I'm done and will let you know if I have any questions.

[mabelzhang]

Thank you for taking it on!

[woensug-choi]

@mabelzhang @askvyas Hi! Sorry for being underwater. I now finally have a machine with NVIDIA Card to try Dave and Sonar plugin. I will be working on this for next few weeks on weekdays after some time to catching things up on starting from clean installation.

[woensug-choi]

So much underfunding situation in Korea for new faculty members or post-docs... it's all over the news too.

[mabelzhang]

😰 Hope you can stay afloat. Thanks for staying in touch!

I also re-set up my Dave Docker image two weeks ago. I haven't built everything from scratch though. I just managed to build the code I had from before, and that still runs, which is a good sign.
I'm hoping to have time to pull all the fresh code and see if it still works. But I'm on travel for the next week, so... hopefully after that.

[GauravKumar9920]

hii, can I work on this issue, also are there any updates regarding this issue ?

[mabelzhang]

Hi @GauravKumar9920 , yes of course! Thank you for your interest.
@woensug-choi Does my comment above still apply, or has there been updates on your end?

[GauravKumar9920]

@mabelzhang As we don't know if it's intentional, Shall I move ahead with mentioning that part in the documentation, to check the repo ?

[GauravKumar9920]

"This tutorial requires the nps_uw_sensors_gazebo package. If you haven't already, clone the repository from https://github.com/Field-Robotics-Lab/nps_uw_sensors_gazebo and source the repository locally"

is this what's expected, Shall I just add this to the intermediate section ?

[mabelzhang]

Well, does that instruction work for you? If you follow it, does it fix this ticket, as in, the launch file is then found and it runs, and you're able to continue with the subsequent steps of the tutorial? That's how we'd test that instruction is valid when a PR is opened.

[Udit176]

Hello @mabelzhang @GauravKumar9920,
I have cloned the uw_lidar repo (https://github.com/Field-Robotics-Lab/nps_uw_sensors_gazebo) and have managed to succesfully launch the standalone lidar using the following command:

roslaunch nps_uw_sensors_gazebo uw_lidar_standalone.launch

I was also able to visualize this in Rviz using:

rosrun rviz rviz -d src/nps_uw_sensors_gazebo/rviz/uw_lidar.rviz

However, the uuv_dave package does not contain a launch file called uuv_uwl.launch, so this command from the tutorial does not work:

roslaunch uuv_dave uuv_uwl.launch

I did find another launch file in the dave_demo_launch package called dave_uw_lidar_demo.launch which works:

roslaunch dave_demo_launch dave_uw_lidar_demo.launch

Having said all that, I am struggling with visualizing the point clouds accurately using Rviz. Specifically, the point clouds being generated don't accurately represent the location of objects wrt to the robot. Do you have any suggestions on how I can fix approach finding a fix to this issue?