Improved steps and aliases for cartographer.

locobot_bash_aliases.sh

@@ -12,3 +12,37 @@ alias test_motion="rostopic pub --once /locobot/mobile_base/commands/velocity ge
 # Record a bag with the standard name.
 alias record_bag="rosbag record --output-name=~/data/test_bag.bag -a"
 
+# Save and view the TF tree.
+view_tf_frames() {
+    rosrun tf view_frames
+    evince frames.pdf
+}
+
+# Setup static transforms for cartographer to work.
+setup_static_tf() {
+    rosrun tf static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 base_link camera_depth_frame 100 &
+    rosrun tf static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 base_link target_frame 100 &
+    rosrun tf static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 locobot/laser_frame_link laser 100 &
+    rosrun tf static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 locobot/laser_frame_link locobot/base_link 100 &
+}
+# Kill the static transform publishers in the background.
+alias kill_static_tf_pubs="pkill static_transform_publisher"
+# Alternatively, search for them with 
+# ps -eaf | grep static_transform_publisher
+# or
+# pgrep static_transform_publisher
+# then for each process ID, run
+# kill <process_id>
+
+# Start cartographer.
+start_cartographer() {
+    cd ~/cartographer_ws
+    source install_isolated/setup.bash
+    roslaunch cartographer_ros my_robot.launch
+}
+
+# Save and view a map being created by cartographer.
+save_map() {
+    rosrun map_server map_saver -f mapname
+    feh mapname.pgm
+}

locobot_setup.md

@@ -141,14 +141,16 @@ rosrun tf static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 base_link target_frame 100
 rosrun tf static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 locobot/laser_frame_link laser 100
 rosrun tf static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 locobot/laser_frame_link locobot/base_link 100
 ```
-Note that you can analyze the tf tree by running `rosrun tf view_frames`.
+Note that you can analyze the tf tree by running `rosrun tf view_frames`. This will generate a file `frames.pdf` in the current working directory, which you can quickly view with `evince frames.pdf`.
 
 3. Now we need to control the robot to drive around the space. We can do this using the built-in turtlebot keyboard control node, or start our own node to command random/test motions. These methods are described in prior sections of this document.
 
 4. At any point while it's running, we can run the following command on the host PC to save the current map being built.
 ```
 rosrun map_server map_saver -f mapname
 ```
+This will save the map image as `mapname.pgm`, as well as some descriptive info to `mapname.yaml`. We can quickly view the map image with the command `feh mapname.pgm`.
+
 <p align="center">
   <img src="images/carto_first_map.png"/>