ROS Topics and Services

Find all topics and services of the nvblox_node and the nvblox_human_node below.

Note

The human reconstruction tutorials (Isaac Sim / realsense) launch the nvblox_human_node, while the static reconstruction tutorials (Isaac Sim / realsense) as well as the dynamic reconstruction tutorials (Isaac Sim / realsense) launch the nvblox_node. The nvblox_human_node inherits from the nvblox_node and is adding additional topic subscriptions for the mask image containing the human semantic segmentation.

ROS Topics Subscribed

ROS Topic	Interface	Description
pointcloud	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	Input 3D LIDAR pointcloud. Make sure to set the lidar intrinsic parameters if using this input, as it uses those to convert the pointcloud into a depth image.
color/image	sensor_msgs/Image	Optional input color image to be integrated. Must be paired with a camera_info message below. Only used to color the mesh.
color/camera_info	sensor_msgs/CameraInfo	Optional topic along with the color image above. Contains intrinsics of the color camera.
depth/image	sensor_msgs/Image	The input depth image to be integrated. Must be paired with a camera_info message below. Supports both floating-point (depth in meters) and uint16 (depth in millimeters, OpenNI format).
depth/camera_info	sensor_msgs/CameraInfo	Required topic along with the depth image. Contains intrinsic calibration parameters of the depth camera.
transform	geometry_message/TransformStamped	Odometry as stamped transform messages. Not required if use_tf_transforms is set to true.
pose	geometry_message/PoseStamped	Odometry as stamped pose messages. Not required if use_tf_transforms is set to true.

Additionally subscribed topics by the nvblox_human_node:

ROS Topic	Interface	Description
mask/image	sensor_msgs/Image	The mask image with the human segmentation (non-human pixels = 0 and human pixels = 1). In the Human Reconstruction with RealSense tutorial this is published by Isaac ROS Image Segmentation.
mask/camera_info	sensor_msgs/CameraInfo	Required topic along with the mask image. Contains intrinsic calibration parameters of the mask camera.

ROS Topics Published

ROS Topic	Interface	Description
~/mesh	nvblox_msgs/Mesh	A visualization topic showing the mesh produced from the TSDF in a form that can be seen in RViz using nvblox_rviz_plugin. Set mesh_update_rate_hz to control its update rate.
~/mesh_marker	visualization_msgs/Marker	A visualization topic showing the mesh using a marker message.
~/static_esdf_pointcloud	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	A pointcloud of the static 2D ESDF (Euclidean Signed Distance Field), with intensity as the metric distance to the nearest obstacle. Set esdf_update_rate_hz to control its update rate.
~/static_map_slice	nvblox_msgs/DistanceMapSlice	A 2D slice of the static ESDF, to be consumed by nvblox_nav2 package for interfacing with Nav2. Set esdf_update_rate_hz to control its update rate.
~/static_occupancy	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	A pointcloud of the static occupancy map (only voxels with occupation probability > 0.5). Set static_occupancy_publication_rate_hz to control its publication rate.
~/map_slice_bounds	visualization_msgs/Marker	A visualization topic showing the mesh slice bounds that can be set with the parameters esdf_2d_min_height and esdf_2d_min_height.
~/back_projected_depth	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	A pointcloud of the back projected latest depth image in the global frame.
~/dynamic_occupancy	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	A pointcloud of the human/dynamic occupancy map (only voxels with occupation probability > 0.5).
~/dynamic_esdf_pointcloud	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	A pointcloud of the human/dynamic 2D ESDF (Euclidean Signed Distance Field), with intensity as the metric distance to the nearest human. Set esdf_update_rate_hz to control its update rate.
~/dynamic_map_slice	nvblox_msgs/DistanceMapSlice	A 2D slice of the human/dynamic ESDF, to be consumed by nvblox_nav2 package for interfacing with Nav2. Set esdf_update_rate_hz to control its update rate.
~/dynamic_points	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	Pointcloud visualizing the back-projected pixels of the latest human/dynamic masked depth frame (without temporal fusion).
~/dynamic_depth_frame_overlay	sensor_msgs/Image	Debug image showing the dynamic/human mask overlaid on the depth image. Note: The overlay is showing the mask before postprocessing.
~/freespace	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	Pointcloud visualizing all non high confidence freespace voxels inside a 5x5x1 m box around the depth camera.
~/combined_esdf_pointcloud	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	A pointcloud of the combined static and human/dynamic 2D ESDF (minimal distance of both), with intensity as the metric distance to the nearest obstacle or human. Set esdf_update_rate_hz to control its update rate.
~/combined_map_slice	nvblox_msgs/DistanceMapSlice	A 2D slice of the combined static and human/dynamic ESDF (minimal distance of both), to be consumed by nvblox_nav2 package for interfacing with Nav2. Set esdf_update_rate_hz to control its update rate.

Additionally published topics by the nvblox_human_node:

ROS Topic	Interface	Description
~/human_voxels	visualization_msgs/Marker	The pointcloud published at ~/dynamic_points mapped to the corresponding voxels. Set human_debug_publish_rate_h to control its update rate.
~/dynamic_color_frame_overlay	sensor_msgs/Image	Debug image showing the human mask overlaid on the color image.

ROS Services Advertised

ROS Service	Interface	Description
~/save_ply	nvblox_msgs/FilePath	Will save the mesh as the PLY (standard polygon file format, which can be viewed with MeshLab or CloudCompare) at the specified location.
~/save_map	nvblox_msgs/FilePath	Will serialize the entire map, including TSDF, ESDF, etc., at the given location.
~/load_map	nvblox_msgs/FilePath	Will overwrite the current map in the node with a map loaded from the given path.

Example service calls from the command line:

ros2 service call /nvblox_node/save_ply nvblox_msgs/srv/FilePath "{file_path: '/home/USERNAME/super_cool_map.ply'}"
ros2 service call /nvblox_node/save_map nvblox_msgs/srv/FilePath "{file_path: '/home/USERNAME/super_cool_map.nvblx'}"
ros2 service call /nvblox_node/load_map nvblox_msgs/srv/FilePath "{file_path: '/home/USERNAME/super_cool_map.nvblx'}"