sicks300_ros2

Overview

This package implements a driver for the Sick S300 Safety laser scanners with an interface for ROS 2 using a lifecycle node. It provides an implementation for both, the old (1.40) and the new (2.10) protocol. Thus, the old Sick S300 Professional CMS as well as the new Sick S300 Expert are supported.

However, it does not cover the full functionality of the protocol:

• It only handles distance measurements properly
• It only handles no or only one configured measurement range field properly
• It does not handle I/O-data or reflector data (though it reads the reflector marker field in the distance measurements)

Keywords: ROS2, laser, driver, sick s300, lifecycle

The sicks300_ros2 package has been tested under [ROS2] Rolling on [Ubuntu] 24.04. but ported to ROS2. This is research code, expect that it changes often and any fitness for a particular purpose is disclaimed.

S300 Configuration

Here are a few notes about how to best configure the S300:

• Configure the RS422 output to 500kBaud (otherwise, the scanner only provides a lower frequency)
• Configure the scanner to Continuous Data Output
• Send data via one telegram
• Only configure distances, no I/O or reflector data (otherwise, the scanner only provides a lower frequency).
• Configuration of the measurement ranges
  • For protocol 1.40: only configure one measurement range field with the full range (-45° to 225°) with all values.
  • For protocol 2.10: do not configure a measurement range field (otherwise, the scanner only provides a lower frequency).
• If you want to only use certain measurement ranges, do this on the ROS side using e.g. the laser_filters package.

Installation

Building from Source

Dependencies

• Robot Operating System (ROS) 2 (middleware for robotics),

Building

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

cd colcon_workspace/src
git clone https://github.com/ajtudela/sicks300_ros2.git
cd ../
rosdep install -i --from-path src --rosdistro jazzy -y
colcon build

Usage

Add the user to the dialout group to access the USB port:

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

Run the sicks300_ros2 node with:

ros2 run sicks300_ros2 sicks300_ros2

Optionally, you can launch this node with an angulor bound filter:

ros2 launch sicks300_ros2 scan_with_filter.launch.py

By default this launches the package’s own scan_filter node (see below). To use laser_filters instead, uncomment the laser_filter_node block in scan_with_filter.launch.py (and use it instead of filter_node in the event handler) together with the matching commented-out scan_filter configuration in params/default.yaml.

Nodes

sicks300_ros2

Driver for the Sick S300 Safety laser scanners.

Published Topics

• scan ([sensor_msgs/LaserScan])

  The laserscan data.

• scan/standby ([std_msgs/Bool])

  True if the scanner is in standby mode, false otherwise.

• /diagnostics ([diagnostic_msgs/DiagnosticArray])

  Diagnostic about the laser scan.

Parameters

• port (string, default: “/dev/ttyUSB0”)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Changelog for package sicks300_ros2

1.4.0 (07-09-2026)

• Add a unit test suite for the parser, scanner and scan filter.
• Move serial acquisition to a dedicated thread behind an injectable ISerialIO transport interface.
• Give the serial read a real wall-clock timeout and make the communication timeout report an error.
• Consolidate diagnostics behind diagnostic_updater.
• Guard against degenerate scans and keep angle_min/angle_max, angle_increment and scan_time consistent.
• Fix the receive buffer compaction in getScan.
• Replace unaligned reinterpret_cast reads in the parser with memcpy.
• Remove static state shared between scanner instances.
• Remove the inert scan timestamp synchronization, dead members, stubs and commented-out code.
• Extract declare_parameter_if_not_declared to a shared header.
• Rename Hungarian-notation identifiers to snake_case and name magic numbers.
• Pass vectors and strings by const reference.
• Deprecate the scan_filter node in favor of the laser_filters package and remove the old laser filter.
• Declare lower_angle_/upper_angle_ as double in scan_filter.
• Rename package to sicks300_ros2 and update publisher QoS.
• Update the CI workflow.

1.3.3 (06-02-2025)

• First jazzy release.

1.3.2 (20-12-2024)

• Improve formating and linting.
• Remove nav2_util dependency.
• CMakelists.txt use modern idioms.
• Add more restricted compiled options.

1.3.0 (20-06-2023)

• Added scan_filter node.
• Added logging info in launch file.
• Added scan delay parameter.

1.2.3 (02-05-2023)

• Update on_activate and on_deactivate methods of the publishers: https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Releases/Release-Humble-Hawksbill.html#rclcpp-lifecycle

1.2.2 (28-11-2022)

• Add LICENSE file.

1.2.1 (24-11-2022)

• Replace diagnostic messages with enums.
• Replace declare_parameter_if_not_declared with the one inside nav2_util.

1.2.0 (27-10-2022)

• Update find_minimums script with QoS.
• Remove boost dependencies.

1.1.1 (26-10-2022)

• Update launch file with arguments.
• Rename folder from config to params.
• Update publishers QoS.

1.1.0 (11-10-2022)

• Update parameters declarations.
• Check if parameters have been declared.
• Fix timer when transition from states.
• Rename dummy_launch.py to scan_with_filter.py.
• Remove undeclare the parameters.

1.0.0 (25-07-2022)

• From cob_driver version 0.7.12.
• Convert to ROS2.
• Add github workflow.
• Added QoS.
• Convert node into a lifecycle node.
• Added laser_filters.
• Added script to find minimum. Thanks to Manolo Fernandez Carmona.
• Contributors: Alberto Tudela.