point_cloud_transport
ROS2 Distro |
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Rolling |
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Description
point_cloud_transport is a ROS 2 package for subscribing to and publishing PointCloud2 messages via different transport layers. E.g. it can provide support for transporting point clouds in low-bandwidth environment using Draco compression library.
Usage
point_cloud_transport can be used to publish and subscribe to PointCloud2 messages. At this level of usage, it is similar to using ROS 2 Publishers and Subscribers. Using point_cloud_transport instead of the ROS 2 primitives, however, gives the user much greater flexibility in how point clouds are communicated between nodes.
For complete examples of publishing and subscribing to point clouds using point_cloud_transport, see Tutorial.
C++
Communicating PointCloud2 messages using point_cloud_transport:
#include <rclcpp/rclcpp.hpp>
#include <point_cloud_transport/point_cloud_transport.hpp>
void Callback(const sensor_msgs::msg::PointCloud2::ConstSharedPtr& msg)
{
// ... process the message
}
auto node = std::make_shared<rclcpp::Node>();
point_cloud_transport::PointCloudTransport pct(node);
point_cloud_transport::Subscriber sub = pct.subscribe("in_point_cloud_base_topic", 1, Callback);
point_cloud_transport::Publisher pub = pct.advertise("out_point_cloud_base_topic", 1);
Alternatively, you can use point_cloud_transport outside of ROS2.
#include <sensor_msgs/msg/point_cloud2.hpp>
#include <point_cloud_transport/point_cloud_codec.hpp>
point_cloud_transport::PointCloudCodec codec;
sensor_msgs::msg::PointCloud2 msg;
// ... do some cool pointcloud generation stuff ...
// untyped version (outputs an rclcpp::SerializedMessage)
rclcpp::SerializedMessage serialized_msg;
bool success = codec.encode("draco", msg, serialized_msg);
// OR
// typed version (outputs whatever message your selected transport returns,
// for draco that is a point_cloud_interfaces::msg::CompressedPointCloud2)
point_cloud_interfaces::msg::CompressedPointCloud2 compressed_msg;
bool success = codec.encode("draco", msg, compressed_msg);
Republish rclcpp component
We provide a process to republish any topic speaking in a given transport to a different topic speaking a different transport. e.g. have it subscribe to a topic you recorded encoded using draco and publish it as a raw, decoded message
ros2 run point_cloud_transport republish --ros-args -p in_transport:=raw -p out_transport:=draco --remap in:=input_topic_name --remap out:=ouput_topic_name
Python
The functionality of point_cloud_transport is also exposed to python via pybind11 and rclpy serialization.
Please see point_cloud_transport/publisher.py and point_cloud_transport/subscriber.py for example usage.
Whitelist point cloud transport
This allows you to specify plugins you do want to load (a.k.a. whitelist them).
ros2 run point_cloud_transport_tutorial my_publisher --ros-args -p pct.point_cloud.enable_pub_plugins:=["point_cloud_transport/zlib"]
Known transports
draco_point_cloud_transport: Lossy compression via Google
zlib_point_cloud_transport: Lossless compression via Zlib compression.
zstd_point_cloud_transport: Lossless compression via Zstd compression.
Did you write one? Don’t hesitate and send a pull request adding it to this list!
License
This project is licensed under the BSD License - see the LICENSE file for details.
Acknowledgments
image_transport - Provided template of plugin interface
Draco - Provided compression functionality
Support
For questions/comments please email the maintainer mentioned in package.xml.
If you have found an error in this package, please file an issue at: https://github.com/ros-perception/point_cloud_transport/issues
Patches are encouraged, and may be submitted by forking this project and submitting a pull request through GitHub. Any help is further development of the project is much appreciated.