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errors in using robot_localization package

asked 2016-09-20 13:42:55 -0600

krishna43 gravatar image

updated 2016-10-04 18:40:07 -0600

Hello ROS gurus,

I am trying to use robot_localization package to better localize my turtlebot in my lab environment. But it seems like it is not able to do what it is meant to do, i am not able to figure out what the problem is. Here is the description of what i have done and required files:

I am using ROS Indigo, Ubuntu 1404 on a turtlebot which is controlled with a joystick. I have configured robot_localiztion package after going through the wiki and some questions related to the package. I drove the robot around in a rectangular grid and collected data in a bag file and played it later. This is the launch file i am using and these are the results i got.

<node pkg="robot_localization" type="ekf_localization_node" name="ekf_localization" clear_params="true">

  <param name="frequency" value="30"/>  

  <param name="sensor_timeout" value="0.1"/>  

  <param name="two_d_mode" value="true"/>

  <param name="odom_frame" value="/odom"/>
  <param name="base_link_frame" value="/base_footprint"/>
  <param name="world_frame" value="/odom"/>

  <param name="odom0" value="/odom"/>
  <param name="imu0" value="mobile_base/sensors/Imu_data"/>

  <rosparam param="odom0_config">[false, false, false, 
                                  false, false, true, 
                                  true,  false, false, 
                                  false, false, false,
                                  false, false, false]</rosparam>

  <rosparam param="imu0_config">[false, false, false, 
                                 false,  false,  false, 
                                 false, false, false, 
                                 false,  false,  true,
                                 false,  false,  false]</rosparam>

  <param name="odom0_differential" value="false"/>
  <param name="imu0_differential" value="false"/>

  <param name="imu0_remove_gravitational_acceleration" value="true"/>

  <param name="debug"           value="false"/>
  <param name="debug_out_file"  value="debug.txt"/>

</node>

Here is the tf frames out when i ran below command

rosrun tf view_frames

image description

And this is the result of odometry plotted in Rviz (red is /odom from turtlebot green is /odometry/filtered from robot_localization)

image description

I plotted odom data using python, here is the result. You can see that both odom(red) and odom_filtered(blue) are overlayed on each other

image description

I am not getting any errors while using robot_localiztion package and tf frames looks right to me. I am not able to figure out what the problem is. Can anyone help me? And here is the bag file i am using.

bag file

NEW PLOTS:

image description

image description

tf frames

Also i ran the command rosrun tf tf_echo /gyro_gram /base_link_fram and i was able to see the output.

UPDATED ON 10/03/2016 4:10 PM

Here is my launch file:

<launch>

<include file="$(find autonomous_navigation)/launch/minimal.launch"/>



<node pkg="robot_localization" type="ekf_localization_node" name="ekf_localization" clear_params="true">

<param name="frequency" value="30"/>
<param name="sensor_timeout" value="0.1"/>
<param name="transform_time_offset" value="0.0"/>


<param name="two_d_mode" value="true"/>

<param name="map_frame" value="/map"/>
<param name="odom_frame" value="/odom"/>
<param name="base_link_frame" value="/base_footprint"/>
<param name="world_frame" value="/odom"/>

<param name="odom0" value="/odom"/>
<param name="imu0" value="mobile_base/sensors/imu_data"/>

<rosparam param="odom0_config">[false,false,false,false,false,false,true,true,true,false,false,false,false,false,false]</rosparam>

<rosparam param="imu0_config">[false,false,false,true,true,true,false,false,false,true,true,false,true,true,true]</rosparam>

<param name="odom0_differential" value="false"/>
<param name="imu0_differential" value="false ...
(more)
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Comments

@Tom Moore Can you please look into this?

krishna43 gravatar image krishna43  ( 2016-10-03 16:40:24 -0600 )edit

Did you fix your launch file? Can you please post it and a sample input message from each sensor? I still don't think your IMU is getting integrated.

Tom Moore gravatar image Tom Moore  ( 2016-10-04 16:31:56 -0600 )edit

I added the requested info. Happy to provide if any additional info is required.

krishna43 gravatar image krishna43  ( 2016-10-04 18:20:04 -0600 )edit

@krishna43 Hi I am doing the similar experiment. However, I found the /odom in TF is always produced by the bag file but not the ekf node. So that make the estimation and the odom the same. I saw your TF tree is correct. Any suggestions?

jerryzhchao gravatar image jerryzhchao  ( 2016-11-29 22:59:01 -0600 )edit

@krishna43 did you have to set up the covariance values of the /odom topic? The /odom readings I am getting with my turtlebot have 0 covariance. I am trying to use turtlebot with robot_localization to fuse /odom with an IMU but the /odom and /odometry/filtered are overlaping, it looks like it is not being corrected by the imu. I am wondering if this 0 covariance may be the problem

rezenders gravatar image rezenders  ( 2021-04-30 14:16:04 -0600 )edit

1 Answer

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answered 2016-10-04 09:45:09 -0600

Tom Moore gravatar image

updated 2016-10-09 18:32:39 -0600

Here's your configuration:

<param name="imu0" value="mobile_base/sensors/Imu_data"/>

Here's the topic name in the bag file:

/mobile_base/sensors/imu_data

ROS topics are case-sensitive (see the capital I in the r_l config), so I'm guessing it's not subscribed.

rostopic info and rosnode info are useful tools for determining when nodes aren't receiving data from one another.

Also, your tf tree image is cut off, but make sure something is publishing the base_link->gyro_link transform.

EDIT 1 in response to update:

That plot looks like it may be correct. Just because you're fusing sensor data doesn't mean the output of that fusion will be perfect. There will still be drift over time, unless you fuse a source of pose data that is externally referenced, e.g., from amcl or a GPS. Also, you're fusing your magnetometer data from your IMU, which can be inaccurate. Go back to your original IMU configuration:

<rosparam param="imu0_config">[false, false, false, 
                               false, false, false, 
                               false, false, false, 
                               false, false, true,
                               false, false, false]</rosparam>

EDIT 2 in response to comments:

Tuning covariance can be a pain. A simple method for calculating variance is to drive your robot and have a means of ground-truthing the real value for that variable. For example, measure distances on the floor and lay down tape, then drive the robot. Look at the reported position and velocity, and compare that with the distance and velocity the robot actually drove. This is a bit naive and ignores off-diagonal correlations between variables in the covariance matrix, but seems to work well in practice. A less elegant method involves hand-tuning the values until the covariance matrix that is output by r_l grows at a realistic rate. There are much more sophisticated methods in the literature, but I think most users get good results using one of the two methods above.

The state estimation nodes in r_l will fuse data from any number of sensors, so long as they produce one of the supported message types. Since amcl can produce a PoseWithCovarianceStamped, its output can be fused into r_l. You might want to use a two-tier setup similar to the one suggested for integrating GPS if you go this route, as amcl poses may jump, so you wouldn't want to execute local path planner motions using that state estimate.

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Comments

Thanks Tom, I will edit my launch files and do some testing again. Are there any certain steps that i can follow to tune co-variance matrices?

I have a question: If i have an external reference such as a per-built map, doesn't amcl package help me to localize the robot even there is drift in (1/2)

krishna43 gravatar image krishna43  ( 2016-10-09 14:33:31 -0600 )edit

odometry. So, how does using robot_localization package help if i already have a prior information (Map) of where the robot is. I though you can use it only when the robot doesn't know where it is.(2/2)

krishna43 gravatar image krishna43  ( 2016-10-09 14:36:09 -0600 )edit

That make sense. Thank you very much for spending your valuable time for providing valuable answer!

krishna43 gravatar image krishna43  ( 2016-10-09 21:16:28 -0600 )edit

You're welcome, and I apologize for the delay in response.

Tom Moore gravatar image Tom Moore  ( 2016-10-10 17:17:38 -0600 )edit

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Asked: 2016-09-20 13:42:55 -0600

Seen: 1,435 times

Last updated: Oct 09 '16