graph_rviz_plugin

RViz plugin for ROS MultiArray msg plot.

Line graph supported built-in types are:

bool
duration
float32
float32MultiArray
float64
float64MultiArray
int8
int8MultiArray
int16
int16MultiArray
int32
int32MultiArray
int64
int64MultiArray
time
uint8
uint8MultiArray
uint16
uint16MultiArray
uint32
uint32MultiArray
uint64
uint64MultiArray

⚠️ It is not possible to draw graphs from values inside custom messages, see https://gitlab.com/InstitutMaupertuis/graph_rviz_plugin/issues/11

Histogram supported types are:

sensor_msgs/Image

Acknowledgment

This work is based on Institut Maupertuis (https://gitlab.com/InstitutMaupertuis/graph_rviz_plugin) and flynneva's work (https://github.com/flynneva/graph_rviz_plugin)

Screenshots

Line graph

Line graph for MultiArray message

:Note: You can automatically select the line color using HSV colormap by Graph settings > Color > HSV

Histogram

ℹ️ The panel configuration is saved/loaded in the RViz configuration file, this includes which topics are recorded, the graph settings and settings.

Install

This work is tested in below environments.

Ubuntu 18.04, ROS Melodic (desktop-full)
Ubuntu 20.04, ROS Noetic (desktop-full)

Create a catkin workspace and clone the project:

mkdir -p <catkin_workspace>/src
cd <catkin_workspace>/src
git clone https://gitlab.com/InstitutMaupertuis/graph_rviz_plugin.git
cd ..
catkin_make

User manual

Add the panel in Rviz by going to Panels > Add New Panel > grah_rviz_plugin and add Line graph or Histogram.

Start / pause

Allows to start recording or pause the recording. When paused, it is possible to inspect the graph and the data are still updated in the background (pausing does not make you loose data).

Stop

Stop a recording, no data will be recorded anymore.

Topics

Allows to choose which topics to record. Cannot be modified when started or paused.

Graph settings

Allows to change the appearance of each graph.

Display: Whether to display the graph or not (this does not affect the data update in the background).
Color: The color of the graph line.
Thickness: The thickness of the graph line.

Graph line settings

Allow to change the panel configuration

Refresh frequency: At what rate the graph updates, you can lower the graph update if performance becomes a problem.
Enabled legend: Show or hide the legend.
Y axis
- Y auto: The Y axis will be automatically scaled depending on the topics values (hidden topics are included in the scaling).
- Y max / Y min: Allows to specify a fixed Y range.
X axis window time: If enabled, the graph will only show the latest x data depending on the time value.

Histogram settings

Allows to change the panel configuration

Topic: Select the image topic.
Start / Stop: Start or stop the data acquisition.
Refresh frequency: At what rate the graph updates, you can lower the graph update if performance becomes a problem.
Bins selection: Define how many bins will be used to compute the histogram.

Export

Allows to export the graph to a PNG, PDF or JPEG file.

Reset

Clears the graphs, underlying data and topics to be recorded.

qwerty35 / graph_rviz_plugin