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Run lidar_centerpoint and lidar_centerpoint-tiny simultaneously#

This tutorial is for showing centerpoint and centerpoint_tinymodels’ results simultaneously, making it easier to visualize and compare the performance.

Setup Development Environment#

Follow the steps in the Source Installation (link) in Autoware doc.

If you fail to build autoware environment according to lack of memory, then it is recommended to build autoware sequentially.

Source the ROS 2 Galactic setup script.

source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash

Build the entire autoware repository.

colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release --parallel-workers=1

Or you can use a constrained number of CPU to build only one package.

export MAKEFLAGS="-j 4" && MAKE_JOBS=4 colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release --parallel-workers 1 --packages-select PACKAGE_NAME

Source the package.

source install/setup.bash

Data Preparation#

Using rosbag dataset#

ros2 bag play /YOUR/ROSBAG/PATH/ --clock 100

Don't forget to add clock in order to sync between two rviz display.

You can also use the sample rosbag provided by autoware here.

If you want to merge several rosbags into one, you can refer to this tool.

Using realtime LiDAR dataset#

Set up your Ethernet connection according to 1.1 - 1.3 in this website.

Download Velodyne ROS driver

git clone -b ros2 https://github.com/ros-drivers/velodyne.git

Source the ROS 2 Galactic setup script.

source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash

Compile Velodyne driver

cd velodyne
rosdep install -y --from-paths . --ignore-src --rosdistro $ROS_DISTRO
colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Edit the configuration file. Specify the LiDAR device IP address in ./velodyne_driver/config/VLP32C-velodyne_driver_node-params.yaml

velodyne_driver_node:
  ros__parameters:
    device_ip: 192.168.1.201 //change to your LiDAR device IP address
    gps_time: false
    time_offset: 0.0
    enabled: true
    read_once: false
    read_fast: false
    repeat_delay: 0.0
    frame_id: velodyne
    model: 32C
    rpm: 600.0
    port: 2368

Launch the velodyne driver.

# Terminal 1
ros2 launch velodyne_driver velodyne_driver_node-VLP32C-launch.py

Launch the velodyne_pointcloud.

# Terminal 2
ros2 launch velodyne_pointcloud velodyne_convert_node-VLP32C-launch.py

Point Cloud data will be available on topic /velodyne_points. You can check with ros2 topic echo /velodyne_points.

Check this website if there is any unexpected issue.

Launch file setting#

Several fields to check in centerpoint_vs_centerpoint-tiny.launch.xml before running lidar centerpoint.

  • input/pointcloud : set to the topic with input data you want to subscribe.
  • model_path : set to the path of the model.
  • model_param_path : set to the path of model's config file.

Run CenterPoint and CenterPoint-tiny simultaneously#

Run

ros2 launch lidar_centerpoint centerpoint_vs_centerpoint-tiny.launch.xml

Then you will see two rviz window show immediately. On the left is the result for lidar centerpoint tiny, and on the right is the result for lidar centerpoint.

two rviz2 display centerpoint and centerpoint_tiny

Troubleshooting#

To avoid Bounding Boxes blinking on rviz, you can extend bbox marker lifetime.

Set marker_ptr->lifetime and marker.lifetime to a longer lifetime.

  • marker_ptr->lifetime are in PATH/autoware/src/universe/autoware.universe/common/autoware_auto_perception_rviz_plugin/src/object_detection/object_polygon_detail.cpp
  • marker.lifetime are in PATH/autoware/src/universe/autoware.universe/common/tier4_autoware_utils/include/tier4_autoware_utils/ros/marker_helper.hpp

Make sure to rebuild packages after any change.