FSM: Correspondenceless scan-matching of panoramic 2D range scans

fsm_lidom_ros provides LIDAR odometry from measurements of a single panoramic 2D LIDAR sensor, a.k.a. a sensor whose field of view is 360 degrees. fsm_lidom_ros is the ROS wrapper of fsm.

Lidar odometry is achieved via scan-matching but without establishing correspondences by leveraging the range signal's periodicity. Hence FSM may exploit properties of the Discrete Fourier Transform. These two pillars support the robustness of FSM's pose error to sensor noise and distance between consecutive poses, as you can see in the figure that summarises key experiments below.

Why use FSM

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Via Docker
  • Via traditional means
• Run
  • Launch
  • Call
• Nodes
  • fsm_lidom_node
    • Subscribed topics
    • Published topics
    • Services offered
    • Parameters
    • Transforms published
• Motivation and Under the hood
  • 1 min summary video
  • IROS 2022 paper

Installation

Via Docker

If this is your first time running docker then I happen to find this docker installation guide very friendly and easy to follow. Then build the image with the most recent code of this repository using compose with

git clone git@github.com:li9i/fsm_lidom_ros.git
cd fsm_lidom_ros
docker compose build

or pull the docker image and run it with

docker pull li9i/fsm_lidom_ros:latest

docker run -it \
    --name=fsm_lidom_ros_container \
    --env="DISPLAY=$DISPLAY" \
    --net=host \
    --rm \
    li9i/fsm_lidom_ros:latest

Via traditional means

Tested in Ubuntu 16.04 and ROS kinetic

Dependencies: CGAL 4.7 FFTW3 boost/random

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone git@github.com:li9i/fsm_lidom_ros.git
cd fsm_lidom_ros; mv fsm/* $PWD; rmdir fsm; cd ../..
catkin build fsm_lidom_ros

Run

Launch

Via Docker

docker compose up

Via traditional means

roslaunch fsm_lidom_ros avanti_fsm_lidom.launch

Call

Launching fsm simply makes it go into stand-by mode and does not actually execute anything. To do so simply call the provided service

Via Docker

docker exec -it fsm_lidom_ros_container sh -c "source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash; rosservice call /fsm_lidom/start"

Via traditional means

rosservice call /fsm_lidom/start

Nodes

fsm_lidom_node

Subscribed topics

Topic	Type	Utility
scan_topic	sensor_msgs/LaserScan	2d panoramic scans are published here
initial_pose_topic	geometry_msgs/PoseWithCovarianceStamped	optional---for setting the very first pose estimate to something other than the origin

---

Published topics

Topic	Type	Utility
pose_estimate_topic	geometry_msgs/PoseStamped	the current pose estimate relative to the global frame is published here
path_estimate_topic	nav_msgs/Path	the total estimated trajectory relative to the global frame is published here
lidom_topic	nav_msgs/Odometry	the odometry is published here

---

Services offered

Service	Type	Utility
fsm_lidom/clear_estimated_trajectory	std_srvs/Empty	clears the vector of estimated poses
fsm_lidom/set_initial_pose	std_srvs/Empty	calling this service means: node subscribes to initial_pose_topic, obtains the latest pose estimate, sets fsm's initial pose, and unsubscribes
fsm_lidom/start	std_srvs/Empty	commences node functionality
fsm_lidom/stop	std_srvs/Empty	halts node functionality (node remains alive)

---

Parameters

Found in config/params.yaml:

IO Topics	Description
scan_topic	2d panoramic scans are published here
initial_pose_topic	(optional) the topic where an initial pose estimate may be provided
pose_estimate_topic	fsm_lidom_ros's pose estimates are published here
path_estimate_topic	fsm_lidom_ros's total trajectory estimate is published here
lidom_topic	fsm_lidom_ros's odometry estimate is published here

Frame ids	Description
global_frame_id	the global frame id (e.g. /map)
base_frame_id	the lidar sensor's reference frame id (e.g. /base_laser_link)
lidom_frame_id	the (lidar) odometry's frame id

FSM-specific parameters	Description
size_scan	the size of scans that are matched (execution time is proportional to scan size, hence subsampling may be needed)
min_magnification_size	base angular oversampling
max_magnification_size	maximum angular oversampling
num_iterations	Greater sensor velocity requires higher values
xy_bound	Axiswise radius for randomly generating a new initial position estimate in case of recovery
t_bound	Angularwise radius for randomly generating a new initial orientation estimate in case of recovery
max_counter	Lower values decrease execution time
max_recoveries	Ditto

---

Transforms published

lidom_frame_id <- base_frame_id

in other words fsm_lidom_node publishes the transform from /base_laser_link (or equivalent) to the equivalent of /odom (in this case lidom_frame_id)

---

Motivation and Under the hood

1 min summary video

IROS 2022 paper

@INPROCEEDINGS{9981228,
  author={Filotheou, Alexandros and Sergiadis, Georgios D. and Dimitriou, Antonis G.}
  booktitle={2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
  title={FSM: Correspondenceless scan-matching of panoramic 2D range scans},
  year={2022},
  pages={6968-6975},
  doi={10.1109/IROS47612.2022.9981228}}