Lidars in Drake

Question

I want to simulate lidars. I saw that a class DepthSensor was mentioned in the documentation, but I have not found its actual implementation. For now, I am planning on using the RgbdSensor class and use only the height I need of the depth point cloud I receive to simulate my lidars. Just to get your input on that, maybe I missed something, but is there a specific class for lidars, and how would you go about adding lidars to a simulation?

Thanks in advance,

Arnaud

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66054558/lidars-in-drake

Answer 1

You've discovered an anchronism in the code. There had previously been a lidar-like sensor (called DepthSensor). The extant documentation refers to that class. The class's removal should've been accompanied by a clean up of the documentation.

The approach you are taking is the expected approach given Drake's current state.

There has always been an intention to re-introduce a lidar-like sensor in Drake's current architecture. It simply hasn't been a high priority.

I'd recommend you proceed with what you're currently doing (lidar from depth images) but, at the same time, post an issue requesting a lidar-like query with specific focus on the minimum lidar-properties that you require. A discussion regarding how that would differ from what you can actually get from the depth images would better inform of us your unique needs and how to prioritize it. (You can also indicate more advanced features that you need less but would be good to have, of course).

As for the question: how would you go about adding lidars?

That's problematic. Ideally, what you would need is ray-casting ability. The intent is for QueryObject to support such a query, but it hasn't happened yet. (It's certainly the underlying technology we'd have used to implement a LidarSensor.) In the absence of that kind of functionality, you'd essentially have to do it yourself in the most horrible, tedious way imaginable. I'd go so far as to suggest that it's not feasible with the current API.