ping360_sonar

Overview

A python ROS package for the [BlueRobotics] [Ping360] Sonar. The package has been tested under [ROS] melodic and Ubuntu 16.04. This code is mostly experimental, expect that it changes often.

Keywords: ROS, package, ping360, ping360 emulator

License

The source code is released under a MIT license.

Installation

Download the latest release

Get the latest stable release here.

Building from Source

Dependencies

• Robot Operating System (ROS) (middleware for robotics),
• OpenCV
• [cv_bridge]

Building

Before building from source, install ping-protocol python lib:

pip install bluerobotics-ping

!Headsup! B.R. just updated their package with some breaking changes, make you sure you use version 0.0.9 for now.

To build from source, clone the latest version from this repository into your catkin workspace and compile the package using

cd catkin_workspace/src
git clone https://github.com/CentraleNantesRobotics/ping360_sonar.git
cd ../
catkin build

Unit Tests

TODO

Usage

An example launch file has been provided example.launch:

Run the main node with:

roslaunch ping360_sonar example.launch

Launch files

• example.launch: contains the default parameteres to run the Ping360 Sonar, including the serial port and the baudrate to interface with the sonar. The rest of the parameters are documented here: Ping360 Documentation. The same parameters can also be reconfigured using the dynamic_reconfigure.

  An emulated mode was added to test the package when you don’t have the sonar. To run the emulated sonar, set the env variable to “true”:

    <env name="emulated_sonar" value="true" />
  

  The results from the emulation should be:

Three extra parameters can be set to toggle specific topics, they are set to true by default.

    <param name="enableImageTopic" value="True or False"/> 
    <param name="enableScanTopic" value="True or False"/> 
    <param name="enableDataTopic" value="True or False"/>

By default, the sensor does a full 360° rotation, but that can be changed by modifying the min and max scan angle values.

    <param name="minAngle" value="0"/> 
    <param name="maxAngle" value="400"/> 

Please note that these angle value are in GRAD and not DEG.

You can also enable or disable the sensor oscillation by setting the oscillate parameter.

    <param name="oscillate" value="True or False"/> 

Nodes

ping360_node

While continuously rotating the sonar in a set FOV range (defined by the min and max angle parameters), it publishes two types of messages:

• The sonar’s response data (the echo intensities for a given angle & range)
• A LaserScan msg with ranges detected using a certain intensity threshold:
• A black and white image using the date received from the sonar. Same as the one generated by the ping viewer.

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