Innoviz API

The Innoviz API is the application program interface used for (a) communicating with the software running on an InnovizOne™ LiDAR sensor system and (b) for viewing the point cloud that the LiDAR produces. Point clouds are saved in Innoviz’s proprietary .invz file format.

The LiDAR uses TCP and UDP to transmit the point cloud and allow configuration: UDP is used to send the point cloud data continuously as a broadcast and TCP is used for command and control. All TCP and UDP parameters, including network settings, are configured in the Innoviz Web Server (under development) or sent to the unit via TCP. The LiDAR supports IPv4.

The API is used by third-party visualization utilities to enable them to view Innoviz point clouds.

Table of Contents:

• Supported Operating Systems
• C++
  • Building the example - Windows
  • Building the example - Linux
  • Running the example - Windows
  • Running the example - Linux
• Python
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
  • Examples
• ROS
  • Installation
    • ROS Melodic for Ubuntu 18.04
    • Catkin for Ubuntu 18.04
  • Build ROS examples
  • Stream a live point cloud from a device
  • Stream a point cloud from an Innoviz device recording

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows 10
  • Requires Npcap installation
• Ubuntu 18.04

C++

API documentation can be found at docs/html/index.html. To use the API, add the path of the include folder to the compiler's "Include Directories" list, and link against the appropriate innovizApi library in the lib folder.

Building the example - Windows

Go to the examples/cpp folder and run:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" -B "build"

This will create a Visual Studio solution in the "build" directory. Open the solution and you will be able to build and run the various examples.

Building the example - Linux

Go to the examples/cpp folder and run:

cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -B "build"
cd build
make all

This will build all of the examples. These projects can be built by running the "make" command from their location.

Running the example - Windows

The example needs to be able to find the innovizApi library in order to run. For Windows this means adding the path of the library you wish to use to the PATH environment variable.
Once this is done, and the application is build, you should be able to run the various example applications from the Visual Studio solution.

Running the example - Linux

The example needs to be able to find the innovizApi library in order to run. For Linux you must add the path to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.
Once this is done, and the application is build, you should be able to run the various example applications. Run them from the "build" folder created earlier.
Additionally, the API requires enhanced networking permissions to run, so the application must be run as sudo or specific priviliges need to be granted with setcap.
For Example:

sudo ./OM_Recording_Example/om_recording_example

Or:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin=eip ./OM_Recording_Example/om_recording_example
./OM_Recording_Example/om_recording_example

Python

Prerequisites

• Python >= 3.6.
• pybind11 python module.
• numpy python module.

On windows machines a the Visual Studio Build Tools are required. This can be downloaded and installed from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools/.

Installation

To install the module run the following command:

python -m pip install {path_to_module}

Where {Path_to_module} is the path to the 'python' directory.

To uninstall the python module run the following command: ``` python -m pip uninstall innopy ``` On linux distributions use 'python3' instead of 'python' in the commands above.

Examples

Various examples that use the python interface can be found under examples/python. The python interface requires enhanced networking permissions to run, so the python scripts must be run as sudo or specific priviliges need to be granted to python using setcap as shown above.

ROS

Installation

ROS Melodic for Ubuntu 18.04

To install ROS Melodic run the following commands:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver 'hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80' --recv-key C1CF6E31E6BADE8868B172B4F42ED6FBAB17C654

sudo apt update

sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop-full

echo "source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
echo /opt/ros/melodic/lib | sudo tee /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ros.conf
sudo ldconfig

bash

source ~/.bashrc

sudo apt install python-rosdep python-rosinstall python-rosinstall-generator python-wstool build-essential

Additional information can be found at https://wiki.ros.org/melodic/Installation/Ubuntu.

Catkin for Ubuntu 18.04

To install Catkin for Ubuntu 18.04 run the following commands:

sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-catkin

sudo apt-get install cmake python-catkin-pkg python-empy python-nose python-setuptools libgtest-dev build-essential

Additional information can be found at https://wiki.ros.org/catkin.

Build ROS examples

To build the ROS examples, go to the ros/catkin_ws directory and run the following commands:

bash

catkin_make -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin=eip ./devel/lib/innoviz_ros/Innoviz_one_Device

Stream a live point cloud from a device

To stream a live point cloud from a device, build the examples, go to the ros/catkin_ws directory, then run the following commands:

bash
source ./devel/setup.sh

roslaunch ./src/launch/innoviz_ros.launch

Stream a point cloud from an Innoviz device recording

To stream a point cloud from an Innoviz device recording, build the examples, go to the ros/catkin_ws directory, then run the following commands:

bash
source ./devel/setup.sh

roslaunch ./src/launch/file_reader_ros.launch