Phase-Space ROS package

Software related to the use of the Phase Space motion tracking.

How to start the system

1. Turn on the phase-space system, login running the following comands and start graphics: username: root, password:free!, startx

2. Calibrate the phase space system, open a terminal and type Select the calipers symbol and select calibration

3. Follow the instructions on the window, at somepoint it will ask you to connect the calibration wand, so look for it.

There is a guide written in italian if you want to know more details.

Marker info and visualization only

Run the command below in your computer (you can set inside the launch file to turn on visualization or not, visualization can be run in a different computer now):

roslaunch phase_space phase_space.launch

Rviz should open with a custom configuration displaying the marker and ids, useful for debug and setup scenarios.

Tracking known objects with known-positioned leds

You need to:

• Write an OBJECT.YAML configuration file in the config folder with the leds id and local coordinates of them, and note the OBJECT_leds: at the top, it is important. A CAD tool is advised if the object model is available, and double check! the correspondence id-coordinates using the master tool in the phasepace.
• Provide an OBJECT.STL model (only for online visualization), and place it in the urdf/mesh folder
• Edit track_object.launch, specifically the line <arg name="object" default="OBJECT" />

IMPORTANT: note that OBJECT is repeated in the three cases.

Finally, run:

roslaunch phase_space track_object.launch object:=OBJECT

An Rviz window should open with almost everything configured, you just need to update the robot model display with the parameter: /OBJECT/robot_description and you should see the mesh flying around.

To track multiple objects, include track_object_launch within a group with a namespace and fill the arguments properly for each object you want to track.

Tracking unknown objects using the star

This requires a calibration procedure in order to known the transformation between the star and the object. The procedure requires an object pose estimation to broadcast an object pose w.r.t. a camera, camera phase space calibration to know where the camera is w.r.t. phase space system, track a known object with the previous procedure, for instance the star, and compute the resulting tracker/object transform that closes the loop. You can use our calibration package to do that.