If you wish to perform secondary development based on ROS, you can use this software package.Working with the built-in visualization tool rviz in ROS, you can view point clouds.

If you wish to integrate the LiDAR driver into your own project for further secondary development, please develop based on vanjee_driver.

1.1.1 Supported LiDAR models

vanjee_716mini
vanjee_718h
vanjee_719
vanjee_719c
vanjee_719e
vanjee_720 / vanjee_720_16
vanjee_720_32
vanjee_721
vanjee_722
vanjee_733
vanjee_750
vanjee_760

1.1.2 Supported point types

XYZI - x, y, z, intensity
XYZIRT - x, y, z, intensity, ring, timestamp

1.2 Dependency introduction

1.3.1 ROS

To use the LiDAR driver in the ROS environment, you need to install ROS-related dependent libraries.

Ubuntu 16.04 - ROS Kinetic desktop
Ubuntu 18.04 - ROS Melodic desktop
Ubuntu 20.04 - ROS Noetic desktop

Please refer to the installation methods provided at http://wiki.ros.org。

It is strongly recommended to install the ROS desktop-full version. This process will automatically install some compatible versions of dependent libraries, such as the PCL library, etc. This can help avoid spending a lot of time installing and configuring them individually.

1.3.2 ROS2

To use the LiDAR driver in the ROS2 environment, you need to install ROS2-related dependent libraries.

Ubuntu 16.04 - Not supported
Ubuntu 18.04 - ROS2 Eloquent desktop
Ubuntu 20.04 - ROS2 Galactic desktop
Ubuntu 22.04 - ROS2 Humble desktop

Please refer to the installation methods provided at https://index.ros.org/doc/ros2/Installation/Eloquent/Linux-Install-Debians/

Please avoid installing ROS and ROS2 simultaneously on one computer to prevent potential version conflicts and the hassle of manually installing other libraries (such as Yaml)

1.3.3 Yaml (indispensable)

Version: >= v0.5.2

If ROS desktop-full is already installed, you can skip this step.

Installation method is as follows:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libyaml-cpp-dev

1.3.4 libpcap (indispensable)

Version: >= v1.7.4

Installation method is as follows:

sudo apt-get install -y  libpcap-dev

1.4 Compile and run

You can use three methods to compile and run vanjee_lidar_sdk.。 Before starting the ROS node, please rename the configuration file for the corresponding LiDAR model (e.g., config721.yaml) in the config folder to config.yaml

1.4.1 Compile directly

(1) Open the CMakeLists.txt file in the project, and change the variable COMPILE_METHOD at the top of the file to ORIGINAL.

#=======================================
# Compile setup (ORIGINAL,CATKIN,COLCON)
#=======================================
set(COMPILE_METHOD ORIGINAL)

(2) Compile and run the program directly in ROS1.

First, start roscore, then run vanjee_lidar_sdk_node, and finally run rviz to visualize the point cloud.

cd vanjee_lidar_sdk
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && make -j4
./vanjee_lidar_sdk_node

1.4.2 Dependent on ROS-catkin compilation

(1) Open the CMakeLists.txt file in the project, and change the variable COMPILE_METHOD at the top of the file to CATKIN.

#=======================================
# Compile setup (ORIGINAL,CATKIN,COLCON)
#=======================================
set(COMPILE_METHOD CATKIN)

(2) Create a new folder as the workspace, then create a folder named src within it. Place the vanjee_lidar_sdk project into the src folder.

(3) Return to the workspace directory, then execute the following commands to compile and run.

catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash
roslaunch vanjee_lidar_sdk start.launch

1.4.3 Dependent on ROS2-colcon compilation

(1) Open the CMakeLists.txt file in the project, and change the variable COMPILE_METHOD at the top of the file to COLCON.

#=======================================
# Compile setup (ORIGINAL,CATKIN,COLCON)
#=======================================
set(COMPILE_METHOD COLCON)

(2) Rename the package_ros2.xml file in the vanjee_lidar_sdk project directory to package.xml.

(3) Create a new folder as the workspace, then create a folder named src within it. Place the vanjee_lidar_sdk project into the src folder.

(4)Place the vanjee_lidar_msg project, which defines the radar packet message for ROS2 environment, in the src folder alongside the vanjee_lidar_sdk project.。

(5) Return to the workspace directory, then execute the following commands to compile and run. If using .zsh, replace the second line with source install/setup.zsh.

colcon build
source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch vanjee_lidar_sdk start.py

The format of start.py may vary depending on different ROS2 versions. Please use the corresponding version's start.py. For example, for ROS2 Eloquent, please use eloquent_start.py.