FengD / foxglove_vision_msgs_plugin

Foxglove vision msgs plugin

1. Description

• Foxglove create-foxglove-extension gives a great example about how to display an unsupported message type on foxglove. https://docs.foxglove.dev/docs/visualization/extensions/introduction/. But the doc is not clear about how to display a ROS/ROS2 extended messages, such as, vision_msgs, geometry_msgs, etc. So with this project I will gives a code example and also the execute pipeline step by step about how to display the ROS vision_msgs by foxglove_plugin. Let's get start.

• Surpose that you are already familiare with craete a foxglove extension, if not check this. https://github.com/foxglove/create-foxglove-extension

2. How to use

2.1. Extensions

• Clone the project git clone https://github.com/FengD/foxglove_vision_msgs_plugin
• Install dependencies npm install
• Build the package npm run package
• After that you will get a file named fengding.vision_msg_converter-[version].foxe, drag the file directly to the foxglove opened application. Check the extensions. With the pictures below, it seems that the extension has been added successfully.

2.2. db3 file pre-process

• After the 2.1. Since vision_msgs is an extended message in ROS, if it is an unsupported message type in Foxglove, it cannot be directly used through db3 files. So we need to transform the db3 file to mcap file to render the result.
• Get mcap-cli wget https://github.com/foxglove/mcap/releases/download/releases%2Fmcap-cli%2Fv0.0.34/mcap-linux-amd64 -O mcap. Annexe 3.1. gives the command helps.
• tools folder contains a compiled useful ros_msgs. Use the command below to finish the transformation.

mcap convert mono3d_front120_0.db3 mono3d_front120_0.mcap
failed to convert file: failed to find schema for vision_msgs/msg/Detection3DArray: schema not found
root@fengding:~# mcap convert mono3d_front120_0.db3 mono3d_front120_0.mcap --ament-prefix-path [tools]/ros_msg/

• Try the mcap file generated in the Foxglove.

3. Annexe

• Pre-built extensions: fengding.vision_msg_converter-1.1.0.foxe

3.1. mcap

🔪 Officially the top-rated CLI tool for slicing and dicing MCAP files.

Usage:
  mcap [command]

Available Commands:
  add         Add records to an existing MCAP file
  cat         Cat the messages in an MCAP file to stdout
  completion  Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell
  compress    Create a compressed copy of an MCAP file
  convert     Convert a bag file to an MCAP file
  decompress  Create an uncompressed copy of an MCAP file
  doctor      Check an MCAP file structure
  filter      Copy some filtered MCAP data to a new file
  get         Get a record from an MCAP file
  help        Help about any command
  info        Report statistics about an MCAP file
  list        List records of an MCAP file
  merge       Merge a selection of MCAP files by record timestamp
  recover     Recover data from a potentially corrupt MCAP file
  version     Output version information

Flags:
      --config string   Config file (default is $HOME/.mcap.yaml)
  -h, --help            help for mcap
      --pprof-profile   Record pprof profiles of command execution. Profiles will be written to files mcap-mem.prof, mcap-cpu.prof, and mcap-block.pprof. Defaults to false.
  -v, --verbose         Verbose output

Use "mcap [command] --help" for more information about a command.

3.2. Videos

• Rviz - rviz_mono_3d.mp4

• Foxglove - foxglove_mono_3d.mp4

3.3. Test Files

• tools - tools used to convert db3.
• db3 - mono3d_front120_0.db3 used as the input file.
• mcap - mono3d_front120_0.mcap tested output file.