===========================
External Packages and Nodes
===========================

.. contents:: :local:

Terminology
===========

* ``+`` : interesting topics and hardware abstraction
* ``~`` : interesting, but quite a lot of work to do for hardware compatibility or mapping
* ``-`` : bad solution

Overview
========

.. figure:: img/ros-packages.*
   :align: center
   :alt: ROS Packages Overview

   ROS Packages Overview

3D Mapping
==========

SLAM
----

Octomap_server : ``+``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

3D occupancy grid mapping, independent from sensor, looks like it does not need odometry

* https://youtu.be/yp0f8-AKvDU
* https://wiki.ros.org/octomap_mapping
* https://wiki.ros.org/octomap_server
* http://octomap.github.io/

Plus :

* maintained
* compatible with melodic
* documentation available as well as many
* no odometry
* independent from hardware (only require the right input topics)

Minus :

* ...

Inputs required :

* sensor_msgs/PointCloud2

Hector slam : ``+``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* https://github.com/tu-darmstadt-ros-pkg/hector_slam
* http://wiki.ros.org/hector_slam

Not sure whether we’re interested in hector slam itself, or on the

Plus :

* maintained
* not directly compatible with melodic, but easy to build it from source for melodic
* odometry not needed

Minus :

* mostly created for 2D mapping and robot navigation
* not much documentation

Inputs required :

* ...

REMODE : ``~``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* https://www.ros.org/news/2016/02/open-source-release-remode-probabilistic-monocular-dense-reconstruction-in-real-time.html

modeling of many 3D objects, like rooms, persons, ...

Plus :

* noise reduction
* nice rendering

Minus :

* not much documentation and precisions about ``hardware/drivers/topics``
* maybe “too much” for our needs ?
* looks like it is not maintained anymore : latest commit was 4 years ago

Inputs :

* ...

LOAM
----

RTABMAP : ``+``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* http://wiki.ros.org/rtabmap_ros

Plus :

* maintained
* compatible with melodic
* real time mapping
* publishes :

  * 3D point clouds
  * 2D occupancy maps

* tutorials and documentation available

Minus :

* oriented towards robot navigation, although “top-down”  modeling seems to be possible

Inputs required :

* odometry (not mandatory in all cases)
* scan 2D or 3D

Spin Hokuyo : ``+``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* https://github.com/RobustFieldAutonomyLab/spin_hokuyo
* http://wiki.ros.org/spin_hokuyo

It creates a point cloud with a 2D LiDaR and a servomotor. The interesting node compiles small point clouds to make one big point cloud. Could be very useful to make our digital model.

Plus :

* has a node that compiles point clouds and publish them on a topic
* great rendering

Minus :

* designed for another sensor, but the node that compiles point clouds does not care about that
* need some odometry work

Inputs required :

* laser scan
* odometry

Lego-LOAM : ``~``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* https://github.com/RobustFieldAutonomyLab/LeGO-LOAM

Plus :

* good rendering

Minus :

* designed for robot navigation, not for “top-down mapping”
* designed for another sensor (velodyne)

Inputs :

* ...

Velodyne loam : ``~``
---------------------

* http://wiki.ros.org/loam_velodyne

Plus :

* good rendering
* builds 3D maps

Minus :

* for velodyne sensor
* robot navigation

Inputs :

* ...

Bad solution ``-``
------------------

* https://github.com/koide3/hdl_graph_slam : not what we need. creates maps with corridors and doors, but not “top-down” mapping
* http://wiki.ros.org/robot_pose_ekf : not what we need
* http://wiki.ros.org/ethzasl_icp_mapper : doc not up to date, slowly not maintained anymore, ...
* https://github.com/ethz-asl/libpointmatcher/blob/master/doc/index.md

Modbus
======

* http://wiki.ros.org/modbus

Object Tracking
===============

Multiple objects lidar tracking : ``~``
---------------------------------------

* https://github.com/praveen-palanisamy/multiple-object-tracking-lidar

Plus :

* tracks objects in real time
* hardware independent

Minus :

* 2D maps, most likely used for robot navigation

Inputs :

* ...

Object Detection
================

* https://www.acin.tuwien.ac.at/vision-for-robotics/software-tools/v4r-library/
* https://rgit.acin.tuwien.ac.at/v4r/v4r_ros_wrappers
* http://wiki.ros.org/object_recognition
* https://www.osrfoundation.org/ros2-object-detection-demo/
* http://wiki.ros.org/find_object_2d

QR code readers
===============

* http://wiki.ros.org/zbar_ros
* https://github.com/mdrwiega/qr_detector
* http://wiki.ros.org/visp_auto_tracker

:tag:`ROS`