NatNet package for ROS2

This is a quick and dirty integration of Naturalpoint's NatNet SDK for Optitrack and ROS2. It has been tested on Ubuntu using ROS2 Foxy, using the NatNet SDK 4.0.0

Installation

Make and/or use a ROS2 workspace

mkdir -p ~/natnet_ws/src
cd ~/natnet_ws/src

Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/Raphtor/natnet_ros2.git
mkdir natnet_ros2/lib

Download the NatNetSDK client from here and copy the library to the proper locations.

wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/naturalpoint/software/NatNetSDKLinux/ubuntu/NatNet_SDK_4.0_ubuntu.tar
tar -xvf NatNet_SDK_4.0_ubuntu.tar
cp NatNet_SDK_4.0_ubuntu/lib/libNatNet.so natnet_ros2/lib/ && cp NatNet_SDK_4.0_ubuntu/include/NatNet* natnet_ros2/include/natnet
rm -rf NatNet_SDK_4.0_ubuntu*

Build the package

cd ..
colcon build --packages-select natnet

Running

ros2 run natnet client

This should auto-discover a server, but if you want, you can pass in a server as a ros parameter.

The node will publish to <tracker_name>/pose_stamped, where <tracker_name> is the name of the rigid body defined in Motive. The default coordinate system is the one used by Motive.

Options and ROS parameters:

You can set these parameters at runtime using the ROS parameter service, e.g

ros2 run natnet client use_timestamps:=false

server_address

The address to look for the server. If left unset (default), the node will auto-discover a server.
use_timestamps

If true, publish PoseStamped messages to <tracker_name>/pose_stamped. Otherwise, publish to Pose messages to <tracker_name>/pose.
world_frame_id

The frame from which to publish the messages to. Default: world.
discovery_timeout

How long to wait discovering servers before timing out, in float seconds. Default: 30.0.
local_address

The local address of the computer running this node. If unset (default), this will use the address returned by the auto-discovery.