NovAtel GPS Driver ==================

Overview

This is a C++ ROS driver for NovAtel GPS / GNSS Receivers.

Features:

• Fast and robust
• Supports serial, TCP, and UDP connections
• Can play back PCAP capture logs to test behavior
• Supports a variety of common NovAtel logs
• Easy to add support for more log types
• Supports ASCII and binary-format NovAtel logs
• Can synchronize BESTPOS, BESTVEL, and PSRDOP2 logs together in order to produce gps_common/GPSFix messages
• Tested with OEM4, OEM6, and OEM7 receivers
• Can produce IMU data from receives with SPAN support

It has been tested primarily on NovAtel OEM628 receivers, but it has been used with various OEM4, OEM6, and OEM7 devices. Please let the maintainers know of your success or failure in using this with other devices so we can update this page appropriately.

Usage

The master branch for this driver functions on ROS Kinetic and Melodic; dashing-devel supports ROS 2 Dashing. To install the binary packages, first install ROS, then just run:

sudo apt-get install ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-novatel-gps-driver

If you’d like to build it from source using catkin_tools:

mkdir -p novatel/src
cd novatel
catkin init
catkin config --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
cd src
git clone https://github.com/swri-robotics/novatel_gps_driver
rosdep install . --from-paths -i
catkin build

Then create a .launch file and configure it as desired:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<launch>
  <node name="novatel"
        pkg="nodelet" type="nodelet"
        args="standalone novatel_gps_driver/novatel_gps_nodelet">
    <rosparam>
      connection_type: serial
      device: /dev/ttyUSB0
      frame_id: /gps
      publish_novatel_velocity: true
      publish_novatel_positions: true
      publish_novatel_psrdop2: true
    </rosparam>
  </node>
</launch>

gps_common/GPSFix messages will always be published, but by default, other message types are not. See the config parameters for a list of which other message types can be enabled.

Packages

1. novatel_gps_msgs

   ROS messages that represent NovAtel message logs. Each supported log should have its own message type. A list of official log types can be found at https://docs.novatel.com/OEM7/Content/Commands/CommandsLogs.htm .

2. novatel_gps_driver

   A C++ library with an accompanying ROS nodelet and node that can connect to a NovAtel device over a serial, TCP, or UDP connection and translate NovAtel logs into ROS messages.

Nodelets

1. novatel_gps_driver/novatel_gps_nodelet

   1. ROS Parameters
      • connection_type: Type of physical connection to the device
        • One of serial, tcp, udp, or pcap
        • Default: serial
      • device: Location of device connection.
        • For serial connections, the device node; e. g., /dev/ttyUSB0
        • For tcp or udp connections, a host:port specification.
          • If the host is omitted, it will listen for connections on the specified port.

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