[TIP] A successful installation of Kimera-VIO-ROS Guide

[jaku-jaku]

##Description:
It has been a bit rabbit hole to get it working.
I have just get it compiled properly in Ubuntu 18.04 - Melodic .

##Guide

Step 1:

Follow the main guide https://github.com/MIT-SPARK/Kimera-VIO-ROS:

1. Pre-req: https://github.com/MIT-SPARK/Kimera-VIO-ROS#a-prerequisities
2. Actual Installation: https://github.com/MIT-SPARK/Kimera-VIO-ROS#b-kimeravio-ros-wrapper-installation

⚠️ Stop before catkin build, or catkin clean if you tried to built but in vain

Step 2: (GTSAM)

As mentioned in MIT-SPARK/Kimera-VIO#194, GTSAM has removed identity under Pose3 and Rot3
Option 1: A quick fix is to checkout the older version

$ cd catkin_ws/src/gtsam
$ git checkout c4184e192b4605303cc0b0d51129e470eb4b4ed1

Option 2: modify Kimera-VIO to match latest GTSAM [TODO]

• Something to be implemented

Step 3: (Kimera-VIO)

1. checkout the branch hydra support:

$ cd catkin_ws/src/Kimera-VIO
$ git checkout feature/hydra

Step 4:

1. Download http://robotics.ethz.ch/~asl-datasets/ijrr_euroc_mav_dataset/vicon_room1/V1_01_easy/V1_01_easy.bag
2. in different terminals:

# Terminal 1:
$ roscore

# Terminal 2:
$ rviz -d $(rospack find kimera_vio_ros)/rviz/kimera_vio_euroc.rviz

# Terminal 3:
$ roslaunch kimera_vio_ros kimera_vio_ros_euroc.launch online:=true

# Terminal 4:
$ rosbag play --clock /PATH/TO/EUROC_ROSBAG

🥂 Good luck, folks!

Hopefully, this get maintained.

[jaku-jaku]

According to MIT-SPARK/Kimera-VIO#187,
gtsam version commit: e5866799dff48239573cdd84964180867e50edd2

[keiro23]

Hi, can you elaborate on what exactly I need to do in step 2.2(modify Kimera-VIO to match latest GTSAM [TODO])?

[jaku-jaku]

Hi, can you elaborate on what exactly I need to do in step 2.2(modify Kimera-VIO to match latest GTSAM [TODO])?

just replace functions whatever the compiler has thrown error on.

   46 |   isam_param->setCacheLinearizedFactors(true);
      |               ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |               cacheLinearizedFactors
{ws}/Kimera-VIO/src/backend/VioBackendParams.cpp:51:15: error: ‘struct gtsam::ISAM2Params’ has no member named ‘setEvaluateNonlinearError’; did you mean ‘evaluateNonlinearError’?
   51 |   isam_param->setEvaluateNonlinearError(false);  // only for debugging
      |               ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |               evaluateNonlinearError

(for example) as

isam_param->cacheLinearizedFactors = True;

[SonginCV]

Thank you for a helpful guide. I have found that the guide makes Kimera-VIO-ROS w/ ros bag and realsense work successfully in my Ubuntu desktop.
However, Kimera-VIO w/o ROS is not working this guide and I think that depends on OpenCV version.
In here, the author has recommend OpenCV 3.4.2 for the Kimera w/o ROS.
In addition, for the Jetson boards, that seem to be not working so I have been struggling with it.