Hi,

the common way is to run a robot_state_publisher which takes the joint
states on a topic and publishes the transforms. You find the corresponding
tutorial here:
http://www.ros.org/wiki/robot_state_publisher/Tutorials/Using%20the%20robot%20state%20publisher%20on%20your%20own%20robot

Lorenz

> What is the typical usage when publishing transforms to match a urdf
> file?   For example, the urdf file has the standard form:
>         
> Link1 -> Joint1 -> Link2 -> Joint2 -> Link3
>         
> In my code, I tf broadcast the joint angles.  (i.e. Link1 -> Joint1 and
> Link2 -> Joint2).  But must I also broadcast the link transforms even
> though they never change?  (i.e. Joint1 -> Link2 and Joint2 -> Link3).
> Is there some way to avoid this? 
>         
> But what I would REALLY like to do for now is just view the URDF file in
> rviz.  But despite all origins being specified in the file, rviz says it
> can't find the transforms between the objects.  Is there a simple URDF
> file viewer (in boxturtle)?
>         
> Thanks,
> -Ben
>         

-- 
Lorenz Mösenlechner            | moesenle@in.tum.de
Technische Universität München | Boltzmannstr. 3
85748 Garching bei München     | Germany
http://ias.cs.tum.edu/         | Tel: +49 (89) 289-26910