Visualizing surfaces

mc_surfaces_visualization is a tool that allows you to visualize the surfaces of a robot in the RViZ application. It is part of the mc_rtc_ros package.

Launching the visualization

The tool is launched as follows:

$ mc_surfaces_visualization JVRC1

The arguments to the program should be the same as you would use as a MainRobot entry. It can also handle aliases. For example:

# Specify a vector of arguments
$ mc_surfaces_visualization env `rospack find mc_env_description` ground
# Or an alias
$ mc_surfaces_visualization env/ground

After launching an mc_rtc GUI, it should look like this:

mc_surfaces_visualization in action

In the 3D display:

  • Planar surfaces are drawn in green with a blue arrow showing the normal direction of the surface (as seen on the feet in the screenshot);
  • Cylindrical surfaces are green cylinders (not seen in the screenshot);
  • Gripper surfaces are represented with blue arrows representing the normal direction of the gripper’s points’ frame;

You can easily select which surfaces to display through the interface.