Launch Autoware Sensor Kit with only 1 LiDAR

[aemilio-Developer]

When I try to launch the sensing and vehicle part of autoware, having only one Velodyne VLP16 LiDAR available, once autoware starts I encounter the following error on the lidar.
“[component_container-5] Warning: Invalid frame ID “base_link” passed to canTransform argument target_frame - frame does not exist.
[component_container-5] at line 93 in ./src/buffer_core.cpp.
”
and

“[component_container-5] [ERROR] [1722327461.802536203] [sensing.lidar.front.crop_box_filter_self]: [get_transform_matrix] timeout tf: velodyne_front->base_link” . What can this be caused by? Does it depend on the fact that I am using only 1 lidar?

[maxime-clem]

The velodyne_front to base_link transform is missing.
It should be provided by the sensor model so make sure you set the proper sensor_model value when launching Autoware (e.g., sensor_model:=sample_sensor_kit with the default model).
If you need help preparing a custom sensor model, see https://autowarefoundation.github.io/autoware-documentation/main/how-to-guides/integrating-autoware/creating-vehicle-and-sensor-model/creating-sensor-model/