autoware_pointcloud_divider

This is a tool for processing pcd files, and it can perform the following functions:

• Dividing point clouds
• Downsampling point clouds
• Generating metadata to efficiently handle the divided point clouds

Supported Data Format

Currently, only pcl::PointXYZ and pcl::PointXYZI are supported. Any PCD will be loaded as those two types.

This tool can be used with files that have data fields other than XYZI (e.g., XYZRGB) and files that only contain XYZ.

• Data fields other than XYZI are ignored during loading.
• When loading XYZ-only data, the intensity field is assigned 0.

Installation

cd <PATH_TO_pilot-auto.*> # OR <PATH_TO_autoware>
cd src/
git clone git@github.com:autowarefoundation/autoware_tools.git
cd ..
colcon build --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release --catkin-skip-building-tests --symlink-install --packages-up-to autoware_pointcloud_divider

Usage

• Select directory, process all files found with find $INPUT_DIR -name "*.pcd".

  ros2 launch autoware_pointcloud_divider pointcloud_divider.launch.xml input_pcd_or_dir:=<INPUT_DIR> output_pcd_dir:=<OUTPUT_DIR> prefix:=<PREFIX>
  

  Name	Description
  INPUT_DIR	Directory that contains all PCD files
  OUTPUT_DIR	Output directory name
  PREFIX	Prefix of output PCD file name

INPUT_DIR and OUTPUT_DIR should be specified as absolute paths.

NOTE: The folder OUTPUT_DIR is auto generated. If it already exists, all files within that folder will be deleted before the tool runs. Hence, users should backup the important files in that folder if necessary.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default	Range
use_large_grid	boolean	Pack small segments to larger folders	false	N/A
leaf_size	float	Resolution in meter for downsampling the output segments. Setting to negative to get the raw output PCDs.	0.2	N/A
grid_size_x	float	The x size in meter of the output segments	20	N/A
grid_size_y	float	The y size in meter of the output segments	20	N/A
input_pcd_or_dir	string	The path to the folder containing the input PCD files		N/A
output_pcd_dir	string	The path to the folder containing the output PCD files		N/A
prefix	string	The prefix for the name of the output PCD files		N/A
point_type	string	Type of the point when processing PCD files. Could be point_xyz or point_xyzi	point_xyzi	N/A

How the point cloud is processed.

How the PCD file is named

Parameter example

1. Dividing point clouds without downsampling

   use_large_grid: false
   leaf_size: -1.0 # any negative number
   grid_size_x: 20
   grid_size_y: 20
   

2. Dividing and downsampling point clouds

   use_large_grid: false
   leaf_size: 0.2
   grid_size_x: 20
   grid_size_y: 20
   

Metadata YAML Format

The metadata file should be named metadata.yaml. It contains the following fields:

• x_resolution: The resolution along the X-axis.
• y_resolution: The resolution along the Y-axis.

Additionally, the file contains entries for individual point cloud files (.pcd files) and their corresponding grid coordinates. The key is the file name, and the value is a list containing the X and Y coordinates of the lower-left corner of the grid cell associated with that file. The grid cell's boundaries can be calculated using the x_resolution and y_resolution values.

For example:

x_resolution: 100.0
y_resolution: 150.0
A.pcd: [1200, 2500] # -> 1200 <= x <= 1300, 2500 <= y <= 2650
B.pcd: [1300, 2500] # -> 1300 <= x <= 1400, 2500 <= y <= 2650
C.pcd: [1200, 2650] # -> 1200 <= x <= 1300, 2650 <= y <= 2800
D.pcd: [1400, 2650] # -> 1400 <= x <= 1500, 2650 <= y <= 2800

LICENSE

Parts of files grid_info.hpp, pcd_divider.hpp, and pcd_divider.cpp are copied from MapIV's pointcloud_divider and are under BSD-3-Clauses license. The remaining code are under Apache License 2.0