README

Sick_Safetyscanners ROS2 Driver

A ROS2 Driver which reads the raw data from the SICK Safety Scanners and publishes the data as a laser_scan msg.

The ROS1 Driver can be found here: https://github.com/SICKAG/sick_safetyscanners

Table of contents

• Supported Hardware

• Getting started

• ROS API

• Creators

Supported Hardware

Supported are all microScan3, nanoScan3 and outdoorScan3 variants with Ethernet connection.

Getting started

In the future the ROS2 driver will be released as a debian package, currently only build from source is supported.

Prerequisites

• Linux

• Working ROS-Distro

• Correctly setup SICK Safety Scanner

• Connected SICK Safety Scanner and a correctly setup ethernet network. Both the host and the sensor have to be in the same network.

Installation

Dependencies

Dependencies can be installed via

sudo apt-get install ros-<rosdistro>-sick-safetyscanners2-interfaces
sudo apt-get install ros-<rosdistro>-sick-safetyscanners-base

The sources can be found here:

• sick_safetyscanners_base (https://github.com/SICKAG/sick_safetyscanners_base)

• sick_safetyscanners2_interfaces (https://github.com/SICKAG/sick_safetyscanners2_interfaces)

From Source

source /opt/ros/<rosdistro>/setup.bash
mkdir -p ~/colcon_ws/src/
cd ~/colcon_ws/src/
git clone https://github.com/SICKAG/sick_safetyscanners2.git
cd ..
colcon build --symlink-install
source ~/colcon_ws/install/setup.sh

Starting

Classic Node

To start the driver the launch file has to be started. For the driver to work correctly, the sensor ip and host ip have to be defined. These parameters can be passed to the sensor as arguments via launch file.

ros2 launch sick_safetyscanners2 sick_safetyscanners2_launch.py

This will start the driver with the in launch file defined parameters.

Lifecycle Node

To start the driver within a lifecycle the launch file has to be started. For the driver to work correctly, the sensor ip and host ip have to be defined. These parameters can be passed to the sensor as arguments via launch file.

ros2 launch sick_safetyscanners2 sick_safetyscanners2_lifecycle_launch.py

This will start the driver with the in launch file defined parameters.

To configure and activate the lifecycle node the following commands have to be issued:

// Configure
ros2 lifecycle set /sick_safetyscanners2_lifecycle_node configure

//Activate
ros2 lifecycle set /sick_safetyscanners2_lifecycle_node activate

Visualization

To visualize the data start rviz2 and subscribe to the ~/scan topic. By default the frame_id is “scan” however this can be customized in the launch file

rviz2

Troubleshooting

• Check if the sensor has power and is connected to the host.

• Check if both sensor and host are in the same subnet e.g. 192.168.1

• Check if the launch file is called with the correct parameters for IP-addresses and ports.

ROS2 API

Advertised ROS2 Topics

~/scan (type: sensor_msgs/msg/LaserScan)

Publishes a scan from the laserscanner

~/extended_laser_scan (type: sick_safetyscanners2_interfaces/msg/ExtendedLaserScan)

Extends the basic laser scan message by reflector data and intrusion data.

~/output_paths (type: sick_safetyscanners2_interfaces/msg/OutputPath)

Gives feedback of the current status of the output paths.

~/raw_data (type: sick_safetyscanners2_interfaces/msg/RawMicroScanData)

Publishes the raw data from the sensor as a ROS2 message.

~/diagnostics (type: diagnostic_msgs/msg/DiagnosticArray)

Frequency and sensor diagnostics

Advertised ROS2 Services

~/field_data

Returns all configured protective and warning fields for the sensor

ROS2 parameters

Parameter Name	Type	Default	Required on startup	Information
sensor_ip	String	192.168.1.11	✔	Sensor IP address. Can be passed as an argument to the launch file.
host_ip	String	192.168.1.9	✔	Host IP address. Can be passed as an argument to the launch file.
interface_ip	String	0.0.0.0		Interface IP address of the receiving host computer, this needs to be set if the host IP is in the multicast IP range. The default is an undefined IP address and will return an error when multicast is used without a correct interface.
host_udp_port	Integer	0		Host UDP Port. Can be passed as an argument to the launch file. Zero allows system chosen port.
frame_id	String	scan		The frame name of the sensor message
skip	Integer	0		The number of scans to skip between each measured scan. For a 25Hz laser, setting ‘skip’ to 0 makes it publish at 25Hz, ‘skip’ to 1 makes it publish at 12.5Hz.
angle_start	Double	0.0		Start angle of scan in radians, if both start and end angle are equal, all angels are regarded. 0° is at the front of the scanner.
angle_end	Double	0.0		End angle of scan in radians, if both start and end angle are equal, all angels are regarded. 0° is at the front of the scanner.
min_intensities	Double	0.0		If this parameter is set, all points below the one set in the parameter are set to infinity
channel_enabled	Boolean	true		If the channel should be enabled
general_system_state	Boolean	true		If the general system state should be published
derived_settings	Boolean	true		If the derived settings should be published
measurement_data	Boolean	true		If the measurement data should be published
intrusion_data	Boolean	true		If the intrusion data should be published
application_io_data	Boolean	true		If the application IO data should be published
use_persistent_config	Boolean	false		If this flag is set, the configured angles from the sensor are loaded and used and the ROS parameters angle_start and angle_end are disregarded

Creators

Lennart Puck

FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik

• http://www.fzi.de

on behalf of SICK AG

• http://www.sick.com