Nik_OrbSlam

This repository was created as an effort to simplify the Kalibr and ORB-SLAM3 processes as part of research work in collaboration with Ilayda Yaman at Lund University. Publication : https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.05309

There are two bash script provided along with some support files to help with speeding up ORB-SLAM3 research efforts without need to worry about issues due to missing dependencies.

The original files picked up from ORB-SLAM3 repository [3] and Kalibr repository [4] and I thank the respective contributors for the effort in building the toolkits. This repository contains fixes necessary for the toolkits to work in tandem and on Ubuntu 20.04 [Last Tested on 2022-10-18] as the original repository are either missing some files or fixes for installation/runtime issues and YAML file formats are not the same for Kalibr vs ORB-SLAM3.

The bash script "runMe.sh" installs all the necessary packages (both ORB-SLAM3 and Kalibr) in one go with occassion request for user password. Please note that this is a simple bash script and does not handle runtime error correction. It can only detect errors and will stop at point when an error is detected. By error I mean either the test program fails to run or installation sub-step failed. This script will also download a small subset of EuroC data set [5] which can be used to verify the toolkits. Please attempt on a newly installed ubuntu station or station which doesnt have any older packages, as the bash script cannot fix errors.

The second bash script "kalibrProc.sh" is to help with extraction of intrinsic parameters/camera calibration parameters/distortion parameters/noise information parameters/etc required for generating the YAML files. These YAML files are then converted to format recognised by ORB-SLAM3 toolkit.

NOTE : There might a confusion on two types of calibration. One we will call as "internal calibration", used to modify the settings internal to Intel Realsense D435i camera using tools provided by Intel. The other calibration is "calibration via Kalibr" to extract information ( intrinsic parameters/camera calibration parameters/distortion parameters/noise information parameters/etc) required by ORB-SLAM3. Kalibr doesnt modify the contents on D435i, but generates YAML files describing the characteristics of camera.

Requirement:

Install Git on your station. Reference Link @ https://github.com/git-guides/install-git

Steps to install ORB-SLAM3

Clone the files from Github

git clone https://github.com/niil87/Nik_OrbSlam.git

Go into the main directory and make a bash file an executable

cd Nik_OrbSlam/
chmod +x runMe.sh

Run the bash script file

./runme.sh

Steps for running Kalibr

Internal calibration using tools provided by Intel

Prior to running this make, please make sure you have performed the necessary calibration on the device. We have used Intel Realsense D435i camera for performing ORB-SLAM3.

Almost any instrument that relies on sensors tends to degrade with time when subjected to either temperature variations or has undergone mobility [1]. It is empirical that we perform internal calibration before using the camera for data collection, the two important calibration procedures are summarized below.

a. Depth sensing: With degradation, we will observe bumpiness for flat surfaces or low fill ratio. We use the tools provided by Intel and described in detail in [1]

b. IMU sensing: With degradation, we will observe a high noise level in the measurements, non-zero bias, or cross-correlation in the axis. We use the python script provided by Intel and described in detail in [2]

Calibration via Kalibr for obtaining Transformation matrix, camera calibration, distortion parameters, noise information, etc

Unfortunately, we couldnt automate the entire process; this includes generating the grid image file and capturing data + images for calibration using the grid image. We have listed down the steps needed to be performed prior to and while running "kalibrProc.sh" script.

Generating April Grid

The link to downloading pregenerated grid images is broken. Assuming that you already installed necessary components via "Steps to install ORB-SLAM3" details listed above, you can use below command to navigate to kalibr_create_target_pdf script and run the necessary command to generate the custom april gril image file.

## Navigate to location of kalibr_create_target_pdf file
cd kalibr_workspace/devel/lib/kalibr

## Executing python script. Please provide approprite values for [NUM_COLS], [NUM_ROWS], [TAG_WIDTH_M], [TAG_SPACING_PERCENT]. (Eg 6,6,0.02,0.3)
python3 kalibr_create_target_pdf --type apriltag --nx [NUM_COLS] --ny [NUM_ROWS] --tsize [TAG_WIDTH_M] --tspace [TAG_SPACING_PERCENT]

## To return to main folder. The newly generated file april_grid.yaml will be located in same path as kalibr_create_target_pdf file.
cd ../../../..

After generating the april grid PDF image file, please create the corresponding YAML file for Kalibr. If you are having difficulting generating the file, there is copy of both the PDF and YAML file in link provided below

<Nik_Orbslam path>/supportFiles/april_grid.yaml
<Nik_Orbslam path>/supportFiles/april_grid_target.pdf

Please refer wiki link [7] provided by Kalibr for more details on other grid types.

Running Kalibr bash script to perform file manipulation and keep the system ready for calibration files

chmod +x kalibrProc.sh 
./kalibrProc.sh

The process will pause after initial file manipulation keeping the system ready for next task. Please proceed to next task and will follow later on when to hit enter in this terminal window

Setting up camera for data + image collection for calibration via Kalibr

Using new terminal window, we will use ros to capture data into bags, and process on bags later on. Before running "rosbag record", please make sure you are famaliar with camera movements as shown in the youtube video [6] provided by Kalibr.

## run roscore to initialize ros
roscore

## run below command in separate terminal for ros to latch on to the camera
roslaunch realsense2_camera rs_d435_camera_with_model_Nik.launch & 

## run below command to collect only necessary info for calibration via Kalibr
rosbag record /camera/depth/image_rect_raw /camera/depth/camera_info /camera/depth/metadata /camera/depth/color/points /camera/color/image_raw /camera/color/camera_info /camera/color/metadata /camera/infra1/image_rect_raw /camera/infra1/camera_info /camera/infra1/metadata /camera/infra2/image_rect_raw /camera/infra2/camera_info /camera/infra2/metadata /camera/gyro/imu_info  /camera/gyro/metadata  /camera/gyro/sample /camera/accel/imu_info /camera/accel/metadata /camera/accel/sample /tf -O Recording

## to view the contents of the bag after completion of data collection, use "rqt_bag"

Once you are done with above steps, please hit enter on the terminal window that you used for running kalibrProc.sh to continue with parameter extraction/estimation.

After collecting all the necessary files and performing calibration via Kalibr, a new set of YAML files will be generated and dispayed in the terminal window display.