toaster_visualizer

How to use

To start the toaster_visualizer ros node, run the following command on terminal -

> rosrun toaster_visualizer

To visualize you need to launch rviz as well:

> rosrun rviz rviz

Description

To understand the situation and visualize the internal processes, a visualization module is rendering the names and 3d models at the position of the entities and the areas with their names. This visualization simplifies the debugging process and allows a faster setup of the framework parameters. This module is designed to create a simple 3d representation of toaster's physical elements in RVIZ.

Implementation details

To use rviz with TOASTER, follow the configuration instructions at https://github.com/Greg8978/toaster/blob/master/toaster_visualizer/doc/toaster_visualizer_doc.pdf. The figure below, explains the implementation of this module.

Inputs

It uses the position of the entities published by the data gathering component and the areas published by the area manager component Toaster_visualizer use informations taken form toaster_msgs published on specifics ros topics to create markerArray. toaster_msgs concerned: AreaList, ObjectList, HumanList topics concerned: /area_manager/areaList, /pdg/objList, /pdg/humanList

Outputs

It publishes markerArray on topics like /toaster_visualizer/marker_area, marker_human, marker_robot, marker_motion and marker_objects viewable with RVIZ as shown in images below.

Adding markers

To add a marker, you need to add the mesh of your object / agent in the corresponding repository. You will also need to add the name corresponding to this element in the xml file:

• environment mesh: toaster_visualizer/mesh/toaster_environment
  xml file: toaster_visualizer/src/list_object.xml
  The name of the object for the environment should be "env".

• human mesh: toaster_visualizer/mesh/toaster_humans
  xml file: toaster_visualizer/src/list_human.xml

• robot mesh: toaster_visualizer/mesh/toaster_robots
  xml file: toaster_visualizer/src/list_robot.xml

• object mesh: toaster_visualizer/mesh/toaster_objects
  xml file: toaster_visualizer/src/list_obj.xml

The human and robots available are presented in the picture below

Future work and possible improvement

In a future work, we would like to improve this visualization by adding the rendering of other facts, such as the one generated by the agent monitoring component about the attention.