ROS Tf Activity

Demonstration

# create the workspace and clone the repository and get set up
mkdir ws/src
cd ws/src
git clone https://github.com/m-elwin/me495_tf.git
cd ..
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

# run the broadcaster
roscore &
rosrun me495_tf in_out &

# list the topics, notice the /tf and /tf_static
rostopic list

# use rqt_tf_tree to see the tf_tree
rosrun rqt_tf_tree rqt_tf_tree

# use tf_echo (from tf 1) to see translation between frame. C-c to quit
rosrun tf tf_echo right left

# run in rviz, set everything up correctly
rviz 

# run in rviz, using my rviz config
rviz -d src/me495_tf/rviz/view.rviz

# run the tracker node
rosrun me495_tf tracker

Exercises

Activity

Walk through the demonstration above, manually setting up rviz to display the transformations
Modify in_out so that the base frame is dynamic, that is, it is broadcast from the regular broadcaster and not the static broadcaster.
Make the base frame rotate about it's own z axis at a fixed rate, and visualize in rviz
Add another frame called up that is a child of base. Have this frame move in sync with left and right but perpendicular to them
Modify tracker so that when the distance between up and left is above a threshold, it prints a message