Getting Started

This section describes the basic hardware setup and configuration needed to test different functionalities of this driver.

Hardware setup and installation

You can follow the guide provided at ifm3d.com on how to wire and setup the O3R system.

To use the camera.launch.py or pds.launch.py examples, at least one camera head is needed. To use the ods.launch.py, two camera heads are needed. imu.launch.py does not require a connected camera.

Follow the instructions provided in the building section to install and/or build the required ifm3d SDK and ROS 2 packages.

Default port configuration

The provided launch files and configuration files are designed to work out of the box with the following port assignment:

Node / Launch file	Port(s)	PCIC port(s)	Description
camera.launch.py (3D)	port4	50014	3D camera head
camera.launch.py (2D)	port0	50010	2D camera head (requires changing pcic_port in config)
ods.launch.py	port2, port3	51010 (app0)	Two 3D camera heads for ODS
pds.launch.py	port5	51011 (app1)	One 3D camera head for PDS
imu.launch.py	port6	50016	IMU (fixed, cannot be changed)

Note: If your physical camera heads are not connected to the ports listed above, you must update the corresponding configuration files so that the launch files work correctly. In particular:

• For camera.launch.py: update pcic_port in config/camera_default_parameters.yaml.

• For ods.launch.py: update the port references in config/o3r_configs/o3r_ods.json and, if needed, the pcic_port in config/ods_default_parameters.yaml.

• For pds.launch.py: update the port references in config/o3r_configs/o3r_pds.json and, if needed, the pcic_port in config/pds_default_parameters.yaml.

The pcic_port values map to camera ports as follows: 50010–50015 correspond to port0–port5, 50016 is the IMU port. Application ports start at 51010.

Package structure

The doc directory contains more in-depth documentation on nodes,deployment, visualization, and diagnostics.

In the launch directory, exemplary launch scripts are provided. They rely on the example configurations provided in config and setup to be usable with the hardware setup described above.

action, msg, and srv contain interface definitions for custom communication.

include contains header files, src contains the source code, test contains the integration tests.

Running nodes

Connection configuration: All config files contain the ip and pcic_port parameter to configure connection to the O3R system. For these tutorials, the IP is set to 192.168.0.69 which is the factory default IP used for all OVP devices. Make sure your system is connected to the ETH0 port of the OVP and can ping the device. See the Default port configuration section above for the expected port-to-pcic_port mapping.

Lifecycle: All nodes in the repository are ROS 2 lifecycle nodes. Some node parameters can be changed while the node is active, others require re-transitioning through to configure state.

camera.launch.py

Running ros2 launch ifm3d_ros2 camera.launch.py uses the config/camera_default_parameters.yaml to start a camera_node which publishes data received on port4 (3D data). To stream 2D data instead, change pcic_port in the configuration file to 50010 (port0).

The default configuration does not include camera head calibration. To include extrinsic calibration in the config, see config/o3r_configs/o3r_one_head_calibration_only.json for an example. Alternatively, calibrate the camera beforehand using the ifmVisionAssistant.

You may run ros2 launch ifm3d_ros2 camera.launch.py visualization:=true to open a RViz2 window to visualize the published data.

For detailed information, see here.

imu.launch.py

Running ros2 launch ifm3d_ros2 imu.launch.py uses the config/imu_default_parameters.yaml to start an imu_node which publishes IMU data collected in the OVP on port6. This port is fixed and cannot be changed by the user.

IMU readings are measured at a higher rate than they can be published. By default, they are published in bulk on the ~/imu_burst topic. To publish singular messages containing averaged data, set the imu.publish_averaged_data parameter to true.

For detailed information, see here.

ods.launch.py

Running ODS requires the cameras to be extrinsically calibrated. The default configuration file (config/o3r_configs/o3r_ods.json) does not include camera head calibration. Calibration can be performed beforehand using the ifmVisionAssistant, or included directly in the JSON configuration file. See config/o3r_configs/o3r_ods_presets_calibration.json for an example that combines ODS application setup with camera head calibration.

Running ros2 launch ifm3d_ros2 ods.launch.py uses the config/ods_default_parameters.yaml to start an ods_node which publishes ODS application data. By default, ODS is configured to use two 3D camera heads on port2 and port3. You may run ros2 launch ifm3d_ros2 ods.launch.py visualization:=true to open a RViz2 window to visualize the published occupancy grid.

For detailed information, see here.

pds.launch.py

Running PDS requires the camera to be extrinsically calibrated. The default configuration file (config/o3r_configs/o3r_pds.json) does not include camera head calibration. Calibration can be performed beforehand using the ifmVisionAssistant, or included directly in the JSON configuration file (similar to the ODS example in config/o3r_configs/o3r_ods_presets_calibration.json). More information on PDS calibration can be found here.

Running ros2 launch ifm3d_ros2 pds.launch.py uses the config/pds_default_parameters.yaml to start a pds_node which uses a 3D camera head on port5.

For detailed information, see here.