RobotCarPlayer

ROS2 Interface of the Oxford (Radar) RobotCar Dataset

RobotCarPlayer converts the original data from the Oxford RobotCar Dataset and the Oxford Radar RobotCar Dataset to topic messages of ROS2 and publishes them. The player is based on ROS2 and QT5, and written in pure C++, which is different from the Matlab and Python scripts in the original robotcar-dataset-sdk. If you do not use ROS2 but want to read the original data through C++, this work is also a good reference.

This work has been tested on ROS2 Foxy.
I believe it can also operate well on the future ROS 🐢.

Sensor Suite 🚗

Sensor	Oxford RobotCar Dataset	Oxford Radar RobotCar Dataset
Stereo Camera	1 x Point Grey Bumblebee XB3	same
Mono Camera	3 x Point Grey Grasshopper2	same
2D LiDAR	2 x SICK LMS-151 2D LiDAR	same
GPS/INS	1 x NovAtel SPAN-CPT	same
3D LiDAR	1 x SICK LD-MRS 3D LiDAR	2 x Velodyne HDL-32E
mmWave Radar	no	1 x Navtech CTS350-X

Basic Features 📖

1️⃣ Any sensor can be loaded dynamically.
2️⃣ Support single and multi-sensor modes.
3️⃣ Support switching between two datasets.
4️⃣ Support the use of the slider to drag the playback point position.
5️⃣ It can dynamically remove or not remove the distortion of all camera images.
6️⃣ The stereo camera can be dynamically switched between the wide mode and narrow mode.
7️⃣ For the GPS/INS, this player publishes GPS and UTM odometry topics at the same time.
8️⃣ In multi-sensor mode, all sensors have played synchronously according to their timestamps.
9️⃣ Continuous updating ...

ROS2 Build 💻

This work has been tested on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

mkdir -p radar_robotcar_dataset_ros2/src
cd radar_robotcar_dataset_ros2/src
git clone https://github.com/Rongxi-Zhang/radar-robotcar-dataset-ros.git
cd ..
rosdep install src --from-paths -i -y
colcon build --packages-select radar_robotcar_dataset_ros2
source ./devel/setup.bash

If you want to build RobotCarPlayer on Windows, please refer to the following link: Building ROS 2 on Windows

How to use 🎥

ros2 run radar_robotcar_dataset_ros2 RobotCarPlayer

Then this video will tell you how to use this player.

And if you want to use the mapviz-2.2.0:

ros2 launch radar_robotcar_dataset_ros2 mapviz.launch.py

Citation ⭐

Don't forget to cite RobotCarPlayer in your publications if RobotCarPlayer helps your research. Your citation will be appreciated. BibTeX Entry:

@misc{robotcarplayer,
  author = {Rongxi Zhang},
  title = {RobotCarPlayer: ROS2 Interface of the Oxford (Radar) RobotCar Dataset},
  year = {2022},
  publisher = {GitHub},
  journal = {GitHub repository},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/Rongxi-Zhang/radar-robotcar-dataset-ros}},
}

Or, a footnote is appreciated: github.com/Rongxi-Zhang/radar-robotcar-dataset-ros.

If you use RobotCarPlayer in your academic work, please also cite the official paper.

Operation Results 📺

rqt:

rviz2:

mapviz:

If you use ROS1, please refer to the old branch.
If you have any questions just get in touch or you can create an issuse.
And If you want to cooperate with me to improve this work, please also contact me.

As a millimeter-wave radar researcher, I will publish some work on radar data processing in the future. Your attention is welcome.

📧 rongxizhangcar@gmail.com