rtabmap_ros

RTAB-Map's ROS package.

For more information, demos and tutorials about this package, visit rtabmap_ros page on ROS wiki.

For the RTAB-Map libraries and standalone application, visit RTAB-Map's home page or RTAB-Map's wiki.

Installation

ROS distribution

RTAB-Map is released as binaries in the ROS distribution.

• Kinetic

  $ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-rtabmap-ros
  

• Jade

  $ sudo apt-get install ros-jade-rtabmap-ros
  

• Indigo

  $ sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-rtabmap-ros
  

• Hydro:

  $ sudo apt-get install ros-hydro-rtabmap-ros
  

  • Note that rtabmap_ros Hydro binaries are stuck at version 0.8.12. To use the latest version, see Build from source below.

When launching rtabmap_ros's nodes, if you have the error error while loading shared libraries..., add the next line at the end of your ~/.bashrc to fix it:

$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/ros/kinetic/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

Build from source

This section shows how to install RTAB-Map ros-pkg on ROS Hydro/Indigo/Jade/Kinetic (Catkin build). RTAB-Map works only with the PCL >=1.7, which is the default version installed with ROS Hydro/Indigo/Jade/Kinetic (Fuerte and Groovy are not supported).

• The next instructions assume that you have set up your ROS workspace using this tutorial. I will use kinetic prefix for convenience, but it should work with Hydro, Indigo and Jade. The workspace path is ~/catkin_ws and your ~/.bashrc contains:

  $ source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
  $ source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

0. Required dependencies

   • The easiest way to get all them (Qt, PCL, VTK, OpenCV, ...) is to install/uninstall rtabmap binaries:

     $ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-rtabmap ros-kinetic-rtabmap-ros
     $ sudo apt-get remove ros-kinetic-rtabmap ros-kinetic-rtabmap-ros

1. Optional dependencies

   • If you want SURF/SIFT on Indigo/Jade/Kinetic (Hydro has already SIFT/SURF), you have to build OpenCV from source to have access to nonfree module. Install it in /usr/local (default) and the rtabmap library should link with it instead of the one installed in ROS.

     • On Indigo/Jade, I recommend to use latest 2.4 version (2.4.11) and build it from source following these instructions. RTAB-Map can build with OpenCV3+xfeatures2d module, but rtabmap_ros package will have libraries conflict as cv-bridge is depending on OpenCV2. If you want OpenCV3, you should build ros vision-opencv package yourself (and all ros packages depending on it) so it can link on OpenCV3.
     • On Kinetic, I recommend to use OpenCV3+xfeatures2d module. You can also install OpenCV2, but rtabmap_ros package will have libraries conflict as cv-bridge is depending on OpenCV3. Thus if you want OpenCV2 on Kinetic, you should build ros vision-opencv package yourself (and all ros packages depending on it) so it can link on OpenCV2.

   • ros-kinetic-g2o: latest g2o version built from source may be faster than the binaries (install libsuitesparse-dev before building g2o) and would be required to avoid some crashes.

   • GTSAM: Follow installation instructions from here. RTAB-Map needs latest version from source, it will not build with 3.2.1.

     git clone https://bitbucket.org/gtborg/gtsam.git

   • Freenect2: Follow installation instructions from here.

2. Install RTAB-Map standalone libraries. Add -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/catkin_ws/devel to cmake command below if you want to install in your Catkin's devel folder without sudo. Do not clone in your Catkin workspace.

   $ cd ~
   $ git clone https://github.com/introlab/rtabmap.git rtabmap
   $ cd rtabmap/build
   $ cmake ..  [<---double dots included]
   $ make
   $ sudo make install

3. Install RTAB-Map ros-pkg in your src folder of your Catkin workspace.

   $ cd ~/catkin_ws
   $ git clone https://github.com/introlab/rtabmap_ros.git src/rtabmap_ros
   $ catkin_make -j1

   • Use catkin_make -j1 if compilation requires more RAM than you have (e.g., some files require up to ~1.8 GB to build).

Update to new version

$ cd rtabmap
$ git pull origin master
$ cd build
$ make
$ make install
# Do "sudo make install" if you installed rtabmap in "/usr/local"

$ roscd rtabmap_ros
$ git pull origin master
$ cd ~/catkin_ws
$ catkin_make -j1