Running ORB_SLAM2 with ROS 2

Ubuntu: 18.04

ROS 2: dashing

Dependecies

• Eigen 3.2 (upper versions bring up incompatibilities)
• OpenCV
• ROS 2 (dashing)
• ORB_SLAM2
• Pangolin

General dependencies

The following dependencies eventually will be necessary. You can install then as you need, or just run the command:

sudo apt-get install -y \
	python3-dev \
	python3-pip \
	python3-numpy \
	python-rosdep2 \
	libgtk-3-dev \
	libglew-dev \
	libgl1-mesa-dev \
	pkg-config \
	libpython2.7-dev \
	ffmpeg \
	libboost-dev \
	libboost-system-dev \
	libcanberra-gtk-module \
	software-properties-common

Eigen3

cd $HOME
git clone -b 3.2 --single-branch  https://gitlab.com/libeigen/eigen.git
mkdir -p $HOME/eigen/build && cd $HOME/eigen/build
cmake ..
sudo make install

Pangolin

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/stevenlovegrove/Pangolin.git
mkdir -p $HOME/Pangolin/build && cd $HOME/Pangolin/build
cmake ..
cmake --build .

OpenCV

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/opencv/opencv.git
mkdir -p $HOME/opencv/build && cd $HOME/opencv/build 
cmake ..
make 
sudo make install

ROS 2

Dashing version

ORB_SLAM2_ROS2

mkdir -p $HOME/ws/src && cd $HOME/ws/src
git clone https://github.com/mirellameelo/ORB_SLAM2_ROS_2.git
git clone -b ros2 https://github.com/ros-perception/vision_opencv.git src/vision_opencv
git clone https://github.com/ros2/message_filters src/message_filters

BEFORE executing the following commands, execute all the "ORB_SLAM2" section.

source $HOME/ros2_sdk/install/setup.sh 
colcon build

ORB_SLAM2

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/raulmur/ORB_SLAM2.git
cd $HOME/ORB_SLAM2
rm CMakeLists.txt
cp $HOME/ORB_SLAM2_ROS_2/src/CMakeLists.txt .
rm $HOME/ORB_SLAM2_ROS_2/src/CMakeLists.txt
cd Thirdparty/DBoW2
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make -j
cd ../../g2o
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make -j
cd ../../../
cd Vocabulary
tar -xf ORBvoc.txt.tar.gz
# Configuring and building ORB_SLAM2
cd ..
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. \
	-DROS_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
	-DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=/usr/bin/python3 \
	-DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_LIBRARIES="-lboost_system"
make -j
make install

Set the environment

• You can add the following lines in: $HOME/.bashrc or run it every time you open a new terminal

source $HOME/ros2_sdk/install/setup.sh
source $HOME/ws/install/local_setup.sh
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/Pangolin/build/src/:~/ORB_SLAM2/Thirdparty/DBoW2/lib:~/ORB_SLAM2/Thirdparty/g2o/lib:~/ORB_SLAM2/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Running using a camera (example)

You need to edit the .yaml file according the camera you are using. You can take the .yaml file in $HOME/ORB_SLAM2_ROS_2/src/camera_type as example, and just change the parameters.

• Mono

ros2 run orbslam mono $HOME/ORB_SLAM2/Vocabulary/ORBvoc.txt YAML_FILE_PATH

• RGBD

ros2 run orbslam stereo $HOME/ORB_SLAM2/Vocabulary/ORBvoc.txt PATH_TO_YAML_CONFIG_FILE BOOL_RECTIFY

• Stereo

ros2 run orbslam stereo $HOME/ORB_SLAM2/Vocabulary/ORBvoc.txt PATH_TO_YAML_CONFIG_FILE BOOL_RECTIFY

Now, the ORB SLAM2 keeps waiting until images be published. You can open another terminal, set the environment and run:

ros2 run image_tools cam2image -t camera