ROG-Map

rog_map builds a local three-dimensional occupancy map from point clouds and odometry. It provides obstacle inflation, frontier extraction and an optional Euclidean signed distance field (ESDF) for planning and spatial queries.

The LASER UAV System (LUS) uses ROG-Map with SUPER. The package exports the rog_map_lib C++ library and the rog_map::RunRogMap ROS 2 component. SUPER embeds the library; the component runs mapping independently.

Build and run

From a ROS 2 workspace with the package dependencies installed:

colcon build --packages-up-to rog_map
source install/setup.bash

Start the component in its own container:

ros2 launch rog_map run_rog_map.launch.py uav_name:=uav1 use_sim_time:=true

The launch creates /uav1/run_rog_map in a multithreaded component container. Start the odometry, point-cloud source and required TF publishers separately. A SUPER planning process already has its own map and does not need this additional component.

Launch arguments

Argument	Default	Meaning
uav_name	UAV_NAME, or uav1	Component namespace.
rog_map_config	default.yaml	Configuration filename under the installed package's config/ directory.
use_sim_time	true when REAL_UAV=false	Uses the ROS simulation clock.
standalone	true	Starts a new component container. Set false to load into an existing container.
container_name	Empty	Target container when standalone=false.
log_level	info	Logging level passed to the standalone container.

For RViz, set UAV_NAME to the same vehicle and run:

export UAV_NAME=uav1
ros2 launch rog_map rviz.launch.py

The visualization helper uses UAV_NAME to adapt the supplied RViz configuration.

Interfaces

With uav_name:=uav1 and config/default.yaml:

Direction	Topic	Type	Purpose
Input	/uav1/livox/lidar	sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2	Point cloud to insert into the map.
Input	/uav1/estimation_manager/estimation	nav_msgs/msg/Odometry	Vehicle pose and map coordinate frame.
Output	/uav1/rog_map/occ	sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2	Occupied cells.
Output	/uav1/rog_map/inf_occ	sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2	Inflated occupied cells.
Output	/uav1/rog_map/unk, /uav1/rog_map/inf_unk	sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2	Unknown and inflated unknown cells, when enabled.
Output	/uav1/rog_map/frontier	sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2	Frontier cells, when extraction is enabled.
Output	/uav1/rog_map/esdf	sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2	ESDF visualization, when enabled.
Output	/uav1/rog_map/map_bound	visualization_msgs/msg/MarkerArray	Map bounds and visualization markers.

Input topics come from the selected YAML. Relative names resolve inside the UAV namespace; absolute names are used directly. Sensor subscriptions and visualization publishers use best-effort QoS with a depth of one. The visualization clouds depend on their enable flags and connected subscribers. Map queries are exposed through the C++ library, rather than ROS services.

Frames and timing

rog_map.ros_callback.target_frame defaults to an empty string. The first valid odometry message then selects the map frame. An explicit value must match the odometry message's header.frame_id; subsequent odometry in a different frame is rejected.

Each cloud is transformed into that frame at its message timestamp before insertion. The TF lookup can wait up to 50 ms of ROS time for a delayed transform. Clouds are skipped when odometry is unavailable, has timed out or the required transform cannot be found.

Map clouds and markers use the selected map frame. rog_map.visualization.frame_id does not override it when ROS callbacks are active. ROG-Map does not publish an odometry-to-FCU transform; the state-estimation or sensor setup must provide the required TF relationships. Use the same clock across sensors, mapping and planning.

Configuration

The YAML files are loaded through config_path by the component. They use a top-level rog_map key, without a ros__parameters wrapper. use_sim_time remains a ROS parameter supplied by the launch.

Supplied profiles

Setting	default.yaml	ogm_map.yaml
Cloud input	livox/lidar	livox_up/lidar
Odometry input	estimation_manager/estimation	estimation_manager/estimation
Voxel and inflation resolution	0.15 m	0.25 m
Map dimensions	[20, 20, 20] m	[25, 25, 5] m
Occupied-cell inflation	1 step	2 steps
Sliding map	Disabled	Enabled, 0.1 m threshold
Frontier extraction	Enabled	Disabled
Point sampling stride	15	1
Visualization rate	10 Hz	2 Hz
Raycasting and ESDF	Disabled	Disabled

Select the second profile with rog_map_config:=ogm_map.yaml. Check its sensor topic and map bounds against your setup.

Map and sensor settings

All parameter paths below are relative to rog_map.

Parameter	Meaning
resolution, inflation_resolution	Occupancy and inflated-map voxel sizes in metres.
map_size	Local map dimensions in metres.
inflation_step	Number of neighboring-cell steps used to inflate occupied cells.
unk_inflation_en, unk_inflation_step	Enables and sets inflation of unknown cells.
map_sliding.enable, map_sliding.threshold	Moves the local map with the vehicle after the configured displacement in metres.
fix_map_origin	Map origin when sliding is disabled.
virtual_ground_height, virtual_ceil_height	Vertical limits in metres; cells outside them are treated as occupied.
frontier_extraction_en	Enables frontier-cell extraction.
intensity_thresh	Positive values enable a minimum-intensity filter; zero or negative values disable it.
point_filt_num	Retains every nth input point; values below 1 are clamped to 1. This is a point-sampling stride, not a cloud-message rate limit.
ros_callback.enable	Enables ROS odometry/cloud subscriptions and map updates.
ros_callback.cloud_topic, ros_callback.odom_topic	Sensor input names.
ros_callback.target_frame	Map frame; empty selects the first valid odometry frame.
ros_callback.odom_timeout	Maximum time since the last accepted odometry callback, in seconds. Both supplied profiles use 2.0.
load_pcd_en, pcd_name	Enables loading a map from a PCD file and selects its path.

Raycasting and distance fields

Parameter	Meaning
raycasting.enable	Enables free-space updates along rays. With it disabled, the map maintains occupied endpoints and leaves other space unknown.
raycasting.batch_update_size	Number of input frames batched for occupancy updates.
raycasting.local_update_box, raycasting.ray_range	Update-region dimensions and ray-distance bounds in metres.
raycasting.p_hit, raycasting.p_miss	Occupancy-update probabilities for hits and misses.
raycasting.p_min, raycasting.p_max	Probability bounds.
raycasting.p_occ, raycasting.p_free	Occupied/free classification thresholds.
raycasting.unk_thresh	Unknown-cell proportion used by the inflated map.
esdf.enable, esdf.resolution, esdf.local_update_box	Enables the distance field and sets its resolution and update region in metres.

Visualization

visualization.enable controls cloud visualization, visualization.time_rate sets its timer rate in Hz and visualization.range selects the region around the vehicle. visualization.pub_unknown_map_en enables unknown-cell output; inflated unknown output also requires unk_inflation_en.

visualization.frame_rate and visualization.use_dynamic_reconfigure are parsed from the YAML but do not provide frame-triggered updates or a dynamic-reconfigure interface in this ROS 2 wrapper. Set the visualization timer and edit configuration before startup.

C++ integration

Include <rog_map_ros/rog_map_ros.hpp> and construct rog_map::ROGMapROS with an existing ROS node and a configuration-file path. Link the exported library:

find_package(rog_map REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(your_target rog_map_lib)

The library provides occupancy, inflated-occupancy, line-of-sight and nearest-cell queries. When feeding the map directly, set ros_callback.enable: false and call updateMap() with the cloud and vehicle pose in a common frame.

SUPER uses this embedded form and loads its mapping settings from the SUPER configuration. Changing a standalone ROG-Map profile does not change the map inside SUPER.

Checks

The package includes test_ros_frames, covering cloud transforms, odometry-frame selection and delayed TF handling. To build and run its checks from the workspace root:

colcon build --packages-select rog_map --cmake-args -DBUILD_TESTING=ON
colcon test --packages-select rog_map --event-handlers console_direct+