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

ROS2 distribution

Under construction: see ros2 branch.

ROS distribution

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

• Noetic

  $ sudo apt install ros-noetic-rtabmap-ros
  
• Melodic

  $ sudo apt install ros-melodic-rtabmap-ros
  
• Kinetic

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

  $ sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-rtabmap-ros
  
  • For armhf architecture, ros-indigo-rtabmap-ros is not available. Install ros-indigo-rtabmap and build from source rtabmap_ros using the indigo-devel branch.

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

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

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

Docker

• Go to docker directory for an example.

Build from source

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

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

  $ source /opt/ros/noetic/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 install ros-noetic-rtabmap ros-noetic-rtabmap-ros
     $ sudo apt remove ros-noetic-rtabmap ros-noetic-rtabmap-ros

1. Optional dependencies

   • If you want SURF/SIFT on Indigo/Jade/Melodic/Noetic (Hydro/Kinetic has already SIFT/SURF), you have to build OpenCV from source to have access to xfeatures2d and nonfree modules (note that SIFT is not in nonfree anymore since OpenCV 4.4.0). Install it in /usr/local (default) and rtabmap library should link with it instead of the one installed in ROS.

     • On Indigo, 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 vision-opencv package yourself (and all ros packages depending on it) so it can link on OpenCV3+.
     • On Kinetic/Melodic/Noetic, build from source with xfeatures2d module (and nonfree module if needed) the same OpenCV version already installed on the system. You will then avoid breaking cv_bridge with rtabmap_ros. If you want to install a more recent OpenCV version, I recommend to uninstall libopencv* libraries (with all ros packages depending on it) and rebuild all those ros packages in your catkin workspace (to make sure cv_bridge is linked on the OpenCV version you just compiled).

   • g2o: Should be already installed by ros-noetic-libg2o.

   • GTSAM: Install via PPA to avoid building from source. If you install from source, make sure to build with cmake -DGTSAM_BUILD_WITH_MARCH_NATIVE=OFF -DGTSAM_USE_SYSTEM_EIGEN=ON.

   • libpointmatcher: Recommended if you are going to use lidars. Follow their instructions to install.

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 ~2 GB to build depending on gcc version).
   • Options:
     • Add -DRTABMAP_SYNC_MULTI_RGBD=ON to catkin_make if you plan to use multiple cameras.
     • Add -DRTABMAP_SYNC_USER_DATA=ON to catkin_make if you plan to use user data synchronized topics.

Build from source for Nvidia Jetson

These instructions are for Jetpack 3 (Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Kinetic). For Jetpack 4 (Ubuntu 18.04 with ROS Melodic), see this post.

To use rtabmap_ros on Jetson, you can follow the instructions above if you don't care if OpenCV is built for Tegra. However, if you want rtabmap to use OpenCV 4 Tegra, we must re-build vision_opencv stack from source too to avoid conflicts with vision_opencv stack binaries from ros (which are linked on a not optimized version of OpenCV). Here are the steps:

1. Install JetPack with OpenCV on the Jetson.

2. Do steps 1.2 and 1.3 from http://wiki.ros.org/kinetic/Installation/Ubuntu

3. Install non-opencv dependent ros packages:

   • Jetpack 3: sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-ros-base ros-kinetic-image-transport ros-kinetic-tf ros-kinetic-tf-conversions ros-kinetic-eigen-conversions ros-kinetic-laser-geometry ros-kinetic-pcl-conversions ros-kinetic-pcl-ros ros-kinetic-move-base-msgs ros-kinetic-rviz ros-kinetic-octomap-ros ros-kinetic-move-base libhdf5-openmpi-dev libsuitesparse-dev

4. Do step 1.6 from http://wiki.ros.org/kinetic/Installation/Ubuntu

5. Create your catkin workspace

6. Optional: Install g2o and/or GTSAM dependencies as above (increase visual odometry and graph optimization accuracy).

7. To avoid libGL undefined errors:

   $ cd /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/
   # Jetpack 3:
   $ sudo ln -sf tegra/libGL.so libGL.so
   # Jetpack 4:
   sudo ln -sf libGL.so.1.0.0 libGL.so
   

8. To avoid libvtkproj4 errors:

   $ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libvtkCommonCore-6.2.so /usr/lib/libvtkproj4.so
   $ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libvtkCommonCore-6.2.so /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libvtkproj4-6.2.so.6.2.0
   

9. 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

10. Clone vision_opencv, image_transport_plugins and rtabmap_ros packages in your catkin_ws:

 $ cd ~/catkin_ws
 $ git clone https://github.com/ros-perception/vision_opencv src/vision_opencv
 $ git clone https://github.com/ros-perception/image_transport_plugins.git src/image_transport_plugins
 $ git clone https://github.com/introlab/rtabmap_ros.git src/rtabmap_ros
 $ catkin_make -j2

Update to new version

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

###########
# rtabmap_ros
###########
$ roscd rtabmap_ros
$ git pull origin master
$ roscd
$ cd ..
$ catkin_make -j1 --pkg rtabmap_ros