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High-resolution raw Radar data, along with it’s nanosecond timing detail, is now published as a dedicated ROS node, along with a configurable laser scan topic, two variants of pointcloud topics, and a 2D image representation of the raw radar data. Below these illustrations presenting radar data through the ROS visualisation tool RVIZ, there is a detailed summary of the ROS2 implementation provided by Navtech Radar, which is available for download at https://bitbucket.org/navtechradar/iasdk-public/src/master/ros/ros2/.

Quick link to install instructions for ROS2 drivers in Ubuntu 2022: Link

Navtech ROS2 Examples

The Navtech ROS2 Driver repository contains examples of ROS2 publishers and subscribers, which interface with RTSP cameras and Navtech Radar. Both basic and complete examples are provided which allow simple publishing of data, simple subscribing to data, and also immediate viewing of radar/camera data, using the ROS2 visualisation tool, RVIZ. The Navtech ROS2 driver is dependent on the Navtech SDK.

Please see lower level README.md files, for more specific information on the ROS project folders.

Navtech SDK Requirements

C++ 17

The ROS2 folder contains the ROS2 project files, for the publishers and subscribers, as detailed above.

  • C++17 Compiler
    Install with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install gcc-9 gcc-9-base gcc-9-doc g++-9
sudo apt install libstdc++-9-dev libstdc++-9-doc

  • GCC 9.x and above
    Install with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gcc-9

  • Clang 10 and above
    Install with the following command:

sudo apt-get install clang-10

Linux Requirements

To use the shell scripts provided in the 'utility scripts' folder we require bash on Ubuntu. First you must execute:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -p critical dash

ROS2 Requirements

As above and:
ROS2 Humble Hawksbill Geoclone - CPP and Python bindings
ROS2 Humble installations are accessible here: https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation.html

Python Requirements

Python3.0+

sudo apt install python3.8

Numpy 1.17.4
This can be installed with the following command:

sudo apt install python3-numpy

OpenCV Requirements

OpenCV 4.5.3 - CPP and Python bindings
Installation instructions here: https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/general/opencv.html

FFMPEG Requirements

ffmpeg version 4.2.4-1ubuntu0.1
- Can be installed with the following command:

sudo apt install ffmpeg

License

The ROS2 driver which is released under The MIT License (MIT).
See https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT for full license details.

ROS2 Packages

To use ROS commands, ROS2 must first be sourced using: 

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash

Note - this must be done in every new terminal
Alternatively, make this permanent by adding to your bash file: 

echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc

This will source ROS for every newly opened terminal window

All ROS2 packages must be built and installed before being run
Build with: 

colcon build

Install with:

. install/setup.bash

Packages can be run like so:

ros2 run <package_name> <executable_name>

For example:

ros2 run nav_radar colossus_publisher

Packages can be run with their corresponding parameter files like so:

ros2 run <package_name> <executable_name> --ros-args --params-file <params_file_path>

For example:

ros2 run nav_radar colossus_publisher --ros-args --params-file ./src/nav_radar/config/colossus_publisher.yaml

camera_ros

This folder contains examples based on a connection to an RTSP camera stream. Examples include conencting to and reading camera images, publishing camera images, subscribing to camera images, and saving camera iamges to a video file. Sample config file(s) are also included in the 'config' directory.

See the README.md under 'camera_ros', for more detailed instructions

launch_ros

This folder contains launch files which are intended to receive and display data with ease. The launch files will launch the required ros nodes, transform(s) and UI (RVIZ) to display data reived from a RTSP camera or Navtech Radar. The Launch files also use configuration files which contain the default settings for the examples.

See the README.md under 'launch_ros', for more detailed instructions

messages

Contains the custom message types used within the ROS2 Navtech driver - this includes camera messages and Navtech radar messages.

See the README.md under 'messages', for more detailed instructions

nav_radar

This folder contains examples based on a connection to a Navtech radar. Examples include conencting to and reading radar data, publishing radar data and images, subscribing to radar data and images, and saving radar iamges to a video file. Sample config file(s) are also included in the 'config' directory.

See the README.md under 'nav_radar', for more detailed instructions

rviz_views

Contains rviz view configuration files used to quickly visualise data output from the above packages. These view configuration files are used by the launch files.

See the README.md under 'rviz_views', for more detailed instructions

ROS2 Example install procedure

Update Ubuntu 22.04

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Install IASDK prerequisites

sudo apt install build-essential clang g++ protobuf-compiler libprotobuf-dev cmake

Install ROS2 prerequisites

sudo apt install -y build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-dev python3 python3-pip software-properties-common

Install ROS2

sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl gnupg lsb-release
sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key  -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop
source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

Check install by running examples

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
ros2 run demo_nodes_py listener

check that the talker and listener are connected, and messages are being exchanged

Install OpenCV

sudo apt install git
cd ~
git clone --depth 20 https://github.com/opencv/opencv.git
git clone --depth 20 https://github.com/opencv/opencv_contrib.git
sudo apt install build-essential cmake git pkg-config libpng-dev libtiff-dev gfortran openexr libgtk-3-dev libavcodec-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev libv4l-dev libxvidcore-dev libx264-dev libjpeg-dev libatlas-base-dev python3-dev python3-numpy libtbb2 libtbb-dev libdc1394-dev libopenexr-dev
cd opencv
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE    -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local          -D WITH_CUDA=OFF        -D INSTALL_PYTHON_EXAMPLES=ON          -D OPENCV_GENERATE_PKGCONFIG=ON         -D  OPENCV_EXTRA_MODULES_PATH=~/opencv_contrib/modules  -D OPENCV_ENABLE_NONFREE=ON         -D BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON ..
make -j8  // (replace the 8 by the number of usable cores on your machine, which is reported by the command nproc)
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

Check OpenCV is installed

python3 -c "import cv2; print(cv2.__version__)"^C

check that version >=4.5.3 is reported

pkg-config --modversion opencv4

check that version >=4.5.3 is reported

Install the Navtech Radar IASDK

git clone https://bitbucket.org/navtechradar/iasdk-public.git

Install Colcon (the ROS2 build tool)

verify that the file iasdk-public/cpp/cpp_17/src/CMakeLists.txt contains the following section:

# Set the BOTAN path
set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} "${SDK_PATH}/cmake/modules/")
find_package(Botan2 REQUIRED)
include_directories(${BOTAN2_INCLUDE_DIR})

and then continue

sudo apt install libbotan-2-dev
sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions
cd ~/iasdk-public/cpp/cpp_17
colcon build

Check the above command does not produce any errors.

Apply some patches:

Copy the contents of the provided patch folder "nav_radar" to replace ~/iasdk-public/ros/ros2/src/nav_radar

  File Modified

Build the ROS2 IASDK packges

verify that the file iasdk-public/ros/ros2/src/nav_radar/CMakeLists.txt contains the following section:

# Set the BOTAN path
set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} "${SDK_PATH}/cmake/modules/")
find_package(Botan2 REQUIRED)
include_directories(${BOTAN2_INCLUDE_DIR})

and then continue

cd ~/iasdk-public/ros/ros2/
source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
colcon build
. install/setup.bash

Common errors and solutions

Ros executables cannot be found after build and execution attempt

Run the following to source the newly build executables

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
. install/setup.bash

Unable to launch RVIZ due to missing library (libQt5Core.so.5)

Run the following to source the newly build executables

rviz2: error while loading shared libraries: libQt5Core.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

In short - the above command removes a piece of code which is looking for something (renameat2 system call) that does not exist in kernels < 3.15

# Debian package build instructions for Navtech ROS2 SDK

## Install the protobuf compiler

sudo apt install protobuf-compiler

## Install the build tools

  sudo apt install python3-bloom python3-rosdep fakeroot debhelper dh-python
    rosdep init
    rosdep update

## Build and install the ROS packages

cd iasdk/ros/ros2
colcon build
. install/setup.bash

## Create YAML to point towards custom ROS packages

Create a yaml file (in the workspace containing the packages, for example) specifying the local packages. Example of yaml content:

(Add an entry for all required packages)

nav_messages:

ubuntu: [nav-messages]

## Create a file in the rosdep sources folder

sudo nano /etc/ros/rosdep/sources.list.d/10-local.list

Add to this file the absolute path of the .yaml file created earlier. Example:

yaml file:///absolute_path_to_local_rosdep_file_list.yaml

## Update the ros dependencies

rosdep update

## Check if the new rosdep packages lists are being correctly found using:

rosdep resolve package_name

## Now build the debian packages

cd ~/iasdk-public/ros/ros2/src/nav_messages
bloom-generate rosdebian --os-name ubuntu --ros-distro humble
cd ~/iasdk-public/ros/ros2/src/nav_messages/debian

Edit the file "control" and change package name from ros-humble-nav-messages to nav-messages

run fakeroot debian/rules binary

This should build a .deb package called nav_messages, in iasdk-public/ros/ros2/src

cd to the next ros2 package root and repeat the above steps

# Install debian packages and check ROS can find them

Note - nav_messages package must be installed first, and nav_launch package must be installed after nav_camera and nav_radar.

This is due to packages being dependent on other pacakges

sudo dpkg -i nav-messages_1.0.0-0jammy_amd64.deb

Repeat the above for all Navtech ROS packages that you require

## Check ROS can find an installed package 

ros2 pkg prefix nav_messages

The above should show the location of the installed package. Example: /opt/ros/humble

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