/polhemus_ros_driver

Polhemus magnetic tracking system ROS drivers

Primary LanguageMakefile

Polhemus Liberty ROS Driver

This package publishes coordinate transforms for the Polhemus Liberty sensors (stations) using the tf2 package.

The user manual for the Polhemus Liberty can be found here.

Install

Do not make changes to any files in polhemus/etc. Install requirements using:

$ cd ./etc
$ ./install.bash

Note that you will require the sudo password.

Usage

Basic

  1. $ roscore.
  2. Open a new terminal.
  3. $ roslaunch polhemus_ros_driver start.launch

Note: it may take 2-3 attempts to successfully start broadcasting tf2 frames.

View frames

Open a new terminal. Start RVIZ ($ rosrun rviz rviz).

  1. Global options: change Fixed Frame to polhemus_base. Note that the Polhemus z-frame faces downwards and you need to publish a static transform to flip the orientation e.g. to polhemus_world (cf. example in launch).
  2. Add -> By display type -> rviz -> TF.

Launch file

The launch file start.launch allows you to change the zenith of the hemisphere.

Requirements

  • ROS Indigo, see package.xml
  • libusb-dev
  • fxload