This ROS package provides the ability to plot parametric 2D plots (i.e. an X, Y plot). It uses pyqtgraph as the back-end plotting library, and currently supports plotting of nav_msgs::Path and geometry_msgs::Pose.
Parametric plotting is currently not provided by existing ROS plotting packages rxplot and rqt_plot, as both of these plot against time. While RViz can handle parametric plots, this is a much lighter and more streamlined tool for when you just want to quickly check a robot path.
- Download and install pyqtgraph from: http://www.pyqtgraph.org/ (current version is v0.9.8).
- Grab the ROS package from this repository.
- Copy the ROS packages to your catkin workspace, and run catkin_make.
The plotting tool can be brought up with:
- rosrun plot_tool plot_path.py
The demo can be brought up with:
- rosrun plot_demo demo
The plot_tool offers two ROS services:
- /plot_tool/draw_path (for plotting nav_msgs::Path messages)
- /plot_tool/draw_pose (for plotting geometry_msgs::Pose messages)
The ROS srv structures are (respectively):
- PlotPath.srv (#include "plot_tool/PlotPath.h")
- PlotPose.srv (#include "plot_tool/PlotPose.h")
Both services have the following request fields (the only difference is in the msg type depending on the service):
| Field | Type | Descriptions |
|---|---|---|
| msg | nav_msgs::Path geometry_msgs::Pose | The message containing the position data to plot. |
| series | uint32 | Select a series for the data to belong to. Data of the same series will be grouped together, and have its own color. Valid values lie between 0 and 6 (inclusive). See color table below for series/color correspondence. |
| append | bool | True: the data will be plotted, and all existing plots in the series will be kept. False: the data will be plotted, and all existing plots in the same series will be cleared. |
| symbol | char | The type of plot marker to use. See symbol table below for valid values. |
| symbol_size | uint32 | The size of the plot markers (has no affect if line plot is selected). |
| Series | Color |
|---|---|
| 0 | green |
| 1 | red |
| 2 | blue |
| 3 | cyan |
| 4 | magenta |
| 5 | yellow |
| 6 | white |
| Symbol | Marker Type |
|---|---|
| - | Line graph (no point markers) |
| o | Scatter plot (dots as markers) |
| s | Scatter plot (squares as markers) |
| t | Scatter plot (triangles as markers) |
| d | Scatter plot (diamonds as markers) |
| + | Scatter plot (crosses as markers) |
Note that the service request does not have to populate all the fields. If any fields are missing, plot_tool will resort to a default value and give a ROS warning detailing the values actually used.
To clear a plot from the graph, simply send a request with append = false with either an empty msg field or attach a msg with no position data.
The services do not have any response fields.