SLAM with sweep best practices?

[sevenbitbyte]

I expect that SLAM will be the primary ROS use case with the sweep. I've had some fairly mixed experiences between the major SLAM packages. I think that the sweep should have at least one approach that is well documented and can work. There are to my knowledge 4 stable SLAM approaches in ROS.

1. gmapping - currently crashing gmapping crashes when using sweep #14
2. slam_karto - currently crashing, but easy work around sweep2scan.launch causes off-by-1 in slam_karto #15 then works very well
3. hector - works out of the box with no major config changes
4. rtabmap - works alright with substantial configuration

Have others gotten gmapping working? @kent-williams is it possible to get a test process that ensures the scanse sweep will work with atleast one of the slam approaches?

[sevenbitbyte]

@utkarshjp7 hey, created an issue to track SLAM support. I got rtabmap to work(not particularly well but OK) I'll share that config with you as soon as I dig it up again.

[vssli]

I trying to use google cartographer library now, struggling to get it work.
I will post my config if i get it worked.

[jabrena]

@vssli I think that it is fantastic!!!

[vssli]

@jabrena It is actually easy to use sweep with cartographer.I have done the work.

[jabrena]

Many @vssli, I am waiting for my unit. I suppose that I will receive it in some weeks.

This week, I am creating some ROS Nodes to connect with Cartographer.
Are you combining with an IMU sensor or only with the info from the laser topic?
ev3dev-lang-java/ev3dev-lang-java#343

@vssli Do you know if Cartographer support multiple robots to generate the Map?

[vssli]

I only use info from /scan to build the map i think.
sorry, I don't know if it supports multiple robots.

[jabrena]

Don´t worry @vssli :) In the beginning, I will try to create the map. Later I will research if it is possible to reuse with more robots. :)

[DiAvisoo]

Has anyone gotten the hector_slam package for ROS working with sweep_ros?

I'm able to see the sweep data points in RViz, but I can't for the life of me transport this information to the hector_slam node. Been editing the tutorial.launch file that comes with hector_slam and have set the scan topic to the same as the frame_id in sweep2scan.launch but that doesn't seem to be the way to go. (It might, but in any case I'm not able to visualize it).

Any help appreciated.

[xl94]

@vssli hi, able to post your config for sharing? thanks