README
1 rslidar_sdk
1 Introduction
rslidar_sdk is the Software Development Kit of the RoboSense Lidar based on Ubuntu. It contains:
The lidar driver core rs_driver,
The ROS support,
The ROS2 support,
To get point cloud through ROS/ROS2, please just use this SDK.
To integrate the Lidar driver into your own projects, please use the rs_driver.
1.1 LiDAR Supported
RS-LiDAR-16
RS-LiDAR-32
RS-Bpearl
RS-Helios
RS-Helios-16P
RS-Ruby-128
RS-Ruby-80
RS-Ruby-48
RS-Ruby-Plus-128
RS-Ruby-Plus-80
RS-Ruby-Plus-48
RS-LiDAR-M1
RS-LiDAR-M2
RS-LiDAR-M3
RS-LiDAR-E1
RS-LiDAR-MX
1.2 Point Type Supported
XYZI - x, y, z, intensity
XYZIRT - x, y, z, intensity, ring, timestamp
2 Download
2.1 Download via Git
Download the rslidar_sdk as below. Since it contains the submodule rs_driver, please also use git submodule to download the submodule properly.
git clone https://github.com/RoboSense-LiDAR/rslidar_sdk.git
cd rslidar_sdk
git submodule init
git submodule update
2.2 Download directly
Instead of using Git, user can also access rslidar_sdk_release to download the latest version of rslidar_sdk.
Please download the rslidar_sdk.tar.gz archive instead of Source code. The Source code zip file does not contain the submodule rs_driver, so it has to be downloaded manaully.
3 Dependencies
3.1 ROS
To run rslidar_sdk in the ROS environment, please install below libraries.
Ubuntu 16.04 - ROS Kinetic desktop
Ubuntu 18.04 - ROS Melodic desktop
Ubuntu 20.04 - ROS Noetic desktop
For installation, please refer to http://wiki.ros.org.
It’s highly recommanded to install ros-distro-desktop-full. If you do so, the corresponding libraries, such as PCL, will be installed at the same time.
This brings a lot of convenience, since you don’t have to handle version conflict.
3.2 ROS2
To use rslidar_sdk in the ROS2 environment, please install below libraries.
Ubuntu 16.04 - Not supported
Ubuntu 18.04 - ROS2 Eloquent desktop
Ubuntu 20.04 - ROS2 Galactic desktop
Ubuntu 22.04 - ROS2 Humble desktop
For installation, please refer to https://index.ros.org/doc/ros2/Installation/Eloquent/Linux-Install-Debians/
Please do not install ROS and ROS2 on the same computer, to avoid possible conflict and manually install some libraries, such as Yaml.
3.3 Yaml (Essential)
version: >= v0.5.2
If ros-distro-desktop-full is installed, this step can be skipped
Installation:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libyaml-cpp-dev
3.4 libpcap (Essential)
version: >= v1.7.4
Installation:
sudo apt-get install -y libpcap-dev
4 Compile & Run
4.1 Compile with ROS catkin tools
(1) Create a new workspace folder, and create a src folder in it. Then put the rslidar_sdk project into the src folder.
(2) Go back to the root of workspace, run the following commands to compile and run. (if using zsh, replace the 2nd command with source devel/setup.zsh).
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash
roslaunch rslidar_sdk start.launch
4.2 Compile with ROS2 colcon
(1) Create a new workspace folder, and create a src folder in it. Then put the rslidar_sdk project in the src folder.
(2) Download the packet definition project in ROS2 through link, then put the project rslidar_msg in the src folder you just created.
(3) Go back to the root of workspace, run the following commands to compile and run. (if using zsh, replace the 2nd command with source install/setup.zsh).
colcon build
source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch rslidar_sdk start.py
Another version of start.py may be used, since it is different on different versios of ROS2. For example, elequent_start.py is used instead for ROS2 elequent.
5 Introduction to parameters
To change behaviors of rslidar_sdk, change its parameters. please read the following links for detail information.
6 Quick start
Below are some quick guides to use rslidar_sdk.
Connect to online LiDAR and send point cloud through ROS