4DRadarSLAM

A 4D Imaging Radar SLAM System for Large-scale Environments based on Pose Graph Optimization

Paper (ResearchGate), IEEEXplore, Video, Dataset (NTU4DRadLM)

4DRadarSLAM is an open source ROS package for real-time 6DOF SLAM using a 4D Radar. It is based on 3D Graph SLAM with Adaptive Probability Distribution GICP scan matching-based odometry estimation and Intensity Scan Context loop detection. It also supports several graph constraints, such as GPS. We have tested this package with Oculli Eagle in outdoor structured (buildings), unstructured (trees and grasses) and semi-structured environments.

4DRadarSLAM can operate in adverse wheather. We did a experiment in which sensors are covered by dense Smoke. The Lidar SLAM (R2LIVE) failed, but our 4DRadarSLAM is not affected by it, thanks to the penetration of millimeter waves to small objects such as smoke and rain.

1. Dependency

1.1 Ubuntu and ROS

Ubuntu 64-bit 18.04 or 20.04. ROS Melodic or Noetic. ROS Installation:

1.2 4DRadarSLAM requires the following libraries:

• Eigen3
• OpenMP
• PCL
• g2o

1.3 The following ROS packages are required:

• geodesy
• nmea_msgs
• pcl_ros
• Our modified fast_apdgicp, in which Adaptive Probability Distribution GICP algorithum module is added. The original is fast_gicp
• barometer_bmp388

    sudo apt-get install ros-XXX-geodesy ros-XXX-pcl-ros ros-XXX-nmea-msgs ros-XXX-libg2o

NOTICE: remember to replace "XXX" on above command as your ROS distributions, for example, if your use ROS-noetic, the command should be:

    sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-geodesy ros-noetic-pcl-ros ros-noetic-nmea-msgs ros-noetic-libg2o

2. System architecture

4DRadarSLAM consists of three nodelets.

• preprocessing_nodelet
• scan_matching_odometry_nodelet
• radar_graph_slam_nodelet

The input point cloud is first downsampled by preprocessing_nodelet; the radar pointcloud is transformed to Livox LiDAR frame; estimate its ego velocity and remove dynamic objects, and then passed to the next nodelets. While scan_matching_odometry_nodelet estimates the sensor pose by iteratively applying a scan matching between consecutive frames (i.e., odometry estimation). The estimated odometry are sent to radar_graph_slam. To compensate the accumulated error of the scan matching, it performs loop detection and optimizes a pose graph which takes various constraints into account.

3. Parameter tuning guide

The mapping quality largely depends on the parameter setting. In particular, scan matching parameters have a big impact on the result. Tune the parameters accoding to the following instructions:

3.1 Point cloud registration

• registration_method

This parameter allows to change the registration method to be used for odometry estimation and loop detection. Our code gives five options: ICP, NDT_OMP, FAST_GICP, FAST_APDGICP, FAST_VGICP.

FAST_APDGICP is the implementation of our proposed Adaptive Probability Distribution GICP, it utilizes OpenMP for acceleration. Note that FAST_APDGICP requires extra parameters. Point uncertainty parameters:

• dist_var
• azimuth_var
• elevation_var

dist_var means the uncertainty of a point’s range measurement at 100m range, azimuth_var and elevation_var denote the azimuth and elevation angle accuracy (degree)

3.2 Loop detection

• accum_distance_thresh: Minimum distance beteen two edges of the loop
• min_loop_interval_dist: Minimum distance between a new loop edge and the last one
• max_baro_difference: Maximum altitude difference beteen two edges' odometry
• max_yaw_difference: Maximum yaw difference beteen two edges' odometry
• odom_check_trans_thresh: Translation threshold of Odometry Check
• odom_check_rot_thresh: Rotation threshold of Odometry Check
• sc_dist_thresh: Matching score threshold of Scan Context

3.3 Other parameters

All the configurable parameters are available in the launch file. Many are similar to the project hdl_graph_slam.

4. Run the package

Download our recorded rosbag (More datasets: NTU4DRadLM) and, then

roslaunch radar_graph_slam radar_graph_slam.launch

You'll see a point cloud like:

You can choose the dataset to play at end of the launch file. In our paper, we did evaluation on five datasets, mapping results are presented below:

5. Evaluate the results

In our paper, we use rpg_trajectory_evaluation, the performance indices used are RE (relative error) and ATE (absolute trajectory error).

6. Collect your own datasets

You need a 4D Imaging radar (we use Oculii's Eagle). Also, a barometer (we use BMP388) and GPS/RTK-GPS (we use ZED-F9P) are optional. If you need to compare Lidar SLAM between the algorithum, or use its trajectory as ground truth, calibrating the transform between Radar and Lidar is a precondition.

7. Acknowlegement

1. 4DRadarSLAM is based on koide3/hdl_graph_slam
2. irapkaist/scancontext scan context
3. wh200720041/iscloam intensity scan context
4. christopherdoer/reve radar ego-velocity estimator
5. NeBula-Autonomy/LAMP odometry check for loop closure validation
6. slambook-en and Dr. Gao Xiang (高翔). His SLAM tutorial and blogs are the starting point of our SLAM journey.
7. lvt2calib by LIUY Clothooo for sensor calibration.

8. Citation

If you find this work is useful for your research, please consider citing:

@INPROCEEDINGS{ZhangZhuge2023ICRA,
  author={Zhang, Jun and Zhuge, Huayang and Wu, Zhenyu and Peng, Guohao and Wen, Mingxing and Liu, Yiyao and Wang, Danwei},
  booktitle={2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, 
  title={4DRadarSLAM: A 4D Imaging Radar SLAM System for Large-scale Environments based on Pose Graph Optimization}, 
  year={2023},
  volume={},
  number={},
  pages={8333-8340},
  doi={10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160670}}

@INPROCEEDINGS{ZhangZhugeLiu2023ITSC,  
author={Jun Zhang∗, Huayang Zhuge∗, Yiyao Liu∗, Guohao Peng, Zhenyu Wu, Haoyuan Zhang, Qiyang Lyu, Heshan Li, Chunyang Zhao, Dogan Kircali, Sanat Mharolkar, Xun Yang, Su Yi, Yuanzhe Wang+ and Danwei Wang},  
booktitle={2023 IEEE 26th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC)},   
title={NTU4DRadLM: 4D Radar-centric Multi-Modal Dataset for Localization and Mapping},  
year={2023},  
volume={},  
number={},  
pages={},  
doi={}}