ROS Interactive Object Server

This package provides functionality to initialize a set of RViz interactive marker servers and markers. Each marker will be equipped with 6-DOF controls, allowing the user to set a TF frame by manipulating the controls.

Installation

To use this package, clone the repository into your catkin workspace.

Usage

When launched, the object_server node will look for the parameter marker_servers on the ROS parameter server. This sets the interactive marker servers to be used by the node. For each server, the user can specify an arbitrary number of markers.

An example configuration file which can be loaded in the parameter server is

marker_servers: ['a_server', 'another_server']

a_server:
  marker_names: ['m1', 'm2']

  m1:
    parent_frame: 'base_frame'
    name: 'm1'
    initial_pose: [0.5, 0.5, 0.5, -0.707, 0.0, 0, 0.707]

  m2:
    parent_frame: 'base_frame'
    name: 'm2'
    initial_pose: [0.5, -0.5, 0.5, 0.707, 0.0, 0.0, 0.707]

another_server:
  marker_names: ['special_marker']

  special_marker:
    parent_frame: 'base_frame'
    name: 'special'
    initial_pose: [0.5, 0.0, 0.5, 0, 0, 0, 1]

You can test this configuration by launching the example launch file provided in this repository:

$ roslaunch object_server example.launch

You can now open RViz. Add a TF display, set the fixed_frame to base_frame and you can add two InteractiveMarker displays, one for the update_topic: a_server the other to another_server. You should now be able to change the pose of the markers by clicking and dragging on RViz:

Services

Two services are available to the user:

• /object_server/toggle_marker_update: Sets whether the server will update markers based on the interactive RViz marker.
• /object_server/set_marker_pose: Allows setting a marker pose