ManagedTransformBuffer

Purpose

This package contains a wrapper of ROS 2 TF buffer & listener. It offers better pefromance in large systems with multiple TF listeners to static transformations.

Installation

sudo apt update
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y
colcon build --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON --packages-select managed_transform_buffer

Usage

Library exposes a few handy function for handling TFs and PointCloud2 transformations.

// Create a managed TF buffer
auto managed_tf_buffer = std::make_unique<ManagedTFBuffer>(node);

// Get a transform from source_frame to target_frame
auto tf_msg_transform = managed_tf_buffer->getTransform<geometry_msgs::msg::TransformStamped>("my_target_frame", "my_source_frame");
auto tf2_transform = managed_tf_buffer->getTransform<tf2::Transform>("my_target_frame", "my_source_frame");
auto eigen_transform = managed_tf_buffer->getTransform<Eigen::Matrix4f>("my_target_frame", "my_source_frame");

if (tf_msg_transform.has_value())
{
  // Do something with the transform
}

// Transform a PointCloud2 message
sensor_msgs::msg::PointCloud2 transformed_cloud;
auto success = managed_tf_buffer->transformPointcloud("my_target_frame", *in_cloud_msg, transformed_cloud);

For full example, see example_managed_transform_buffer.cpp. You can also build this example and run it:

colcon build --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=On --packages-select managed_transform_buffer
ros2 run managed_transform_buffer example_managed_transform_buffer --ros-args -p target_frame:=my_target_frame -p source_frame:=my_source_frame -r input/cloud:=/my_input_cloud -r output/cloud:=/my_output_cloud