This is useful discussion topic. Some people have already been exploring it
with the OccupancyGridUpdate message (
http://ros.org/doc/groovy/api/map_msgs/html/msg/OccupancyGridUpdate.html)
in particular Stéphane Magnenat. There was a REP partially related to this
topic (
https://github.com/stephanemagnenat/rep/blob/91dc02f8f2a82c5ef4820d2fc9f0f6d1fd1d0c20/rep-0129.rst)
but I'm not sure what the final status of it was.




On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 8:59 AM, Dereck Wonnacott <dereck@gmail.com> wrote:

> ROS users,
>
> I had an idea for improving map topics and would like to open it up for
> discussion and get some feedback on the idea.
>
> *Problem:* I like to run rviz for my mobile robot on a different computer
> than my robot for obvious reasons, but when gmapping maps get large they
> tend to saturate the network.
>
> *Idea:* Reduce the required bandwidth by publishing map deltas rather
> than full maps.
>
> *Implementation details:* The /map topic would publish the full map and
> latch that message for new subscribers.
>
> The /map-updates topic could then publish a hash of the map being
> published on /map and a list of changes required to bring that map up to
> date.
>
> When the change list size exceeds some threshold, it can publish and latch
> a new map on the /map topic. This will cause /map-updates to have a new
> hash and clear the change list
>
> The full map could be published on /map-full for backwards compatibility
> with older nodes.
>
> Suggestions and feedback on the idea greatly appreciated. :)
> ~Dereck Wonnacott
> Michigan Tech Robotics Lab
>
>
> “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high
> and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
> - Michelangelo
>
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>