[ros-users] Using IR distance sensors with costmap2d

[Christian Verbeek]

Dear all,

my robot is equipped with a laser rangefinder and 9 infrared distances
sensors. The rangefinder is scanning at z=0.2 while the infrared sensors
are scanning at z=0.05. So it absolutely makes sense to put the readings
of the infrared sensors into the local costmap to avoid obstacles not
seen by the rangefinder.

I publish a point cloud with 9 points in it (the distances read from the
9 infrared sensors mapped to the base frame). The maximum range of the
infrared sensors is 0.4m.

My costmap_common_params.yaml look like this

observation_sources: laser_scan_sensor ir_sensors

laser_scan_sensor: {sensor_frame: laser_link, data_type: LaserScan,
topic: scan, marking: true, clearing: true}
ir_sensors: {sensor_frame: base_link, data_type: PointCloud, topic:
ir_sensors, marking: true, clearing: true, obstacle_range: 0.4,
raytrace_range: 0.4, observation_persistence: 0.0 }

The obstacles detected by the infrared sensors are correctly put into
the costmap. The problem is that the marker cells aren't cleared. So
when I move around my robot the robot is surrounded by occupied cells
and path planning does not work any more.

What can I do?

Regards
Christian