autoware_pose_estimator_arbiter

Table of contents:

• Abstract
• Interface
• Architecture
• How to launch
• Switching Rules
• Pose Initialization
• Future Plans

Abstract

This package launches multiple pose estimators and provides the capability to stop or resume specific pose estimators based on the situation. It provides provisional switching rules and will be adaptable to a wide variety of rules in the future.

Please refer to this discussion about other ideas on implementation.

Why do we need a stop/resume mechanism?

It is possible to launch multiple pose_estimators and fuse them using a Kalman filter by editing launch files. However, this approach is not preferable due to computational costs.

Particularly, NDT and YabLoc are computationally intensive, and it’s not recommended to run them simultaneously. Also, even if both can be activated at the same time, the Kalman Filter may be affected by one of them giving bad output.

[!NOTE] Currently, there is ONLY A RULE implemented that always enables all pose_estimators. If users want to toggle pose_estimator with their own rules, they need to add new rules. by referring to example_rule. The example_rule has source code that can be used as a reference for implementing the rules.

Supporting pose_estimators

• ndt_scan_matcher
• eagleye
• yabloc
• landmark_based_localizer

Demonstration

The following video demonstrates the switching of four different pose estimators.

Users can reproduce the demonstration using the following data and launch command:

sample data (rosbag & map) The rosbag is simulated data created by AWSIM. The map is an edited version of the original map data published on the AWSIM documentation page to make it suitable for multiple pose_estimators.

ros2 launch autoware_launch logging_simulator.launch.xml \
  map_path:=<your-map-path> \
  vehicle_model:=sample_vehicle \
  sensor_model:=awsim_sensor_kit \
  pose_source:=ndt_yabloc_artag_eagleye

Interfaces

Trouble Shooting

If it does not seems to work, users can get more information in the following ways.

[!TIP]

ros2 service call /localization/autoware_pose_estimator_arbiter/config_logger logging_demo/srv/ConfigLogger \
  '{logger_name: localization.autoware_pose_estimator_arbiter, level: debug}'

Architecture

Click to show details

### Case of running a single pose estimator When each pose_estimator is run alone, this package does nothing. Following figure shows the node configuration when NDT, YabLoc Eagleye and AR-Tag are run independently. ### Case of running multiple pose estimators When running multiple pose_estimators, autoware_pose_estimator_arbiter is executed. It comprises a **switching rule** and **stoppers** corresponding to each pose_estimator. - Stoppers control the pose_estimator activity by relaying inputs or outputs, or by requesting a suspend service. - Switching rules determine which pose_estimator to use. Which stoppers and switching rules are instantiated depends on the runtime arguments at startup. Following figure shows the node configuration when all pose_estimator are run simultaneously. - **NDT** The NDT stopper relays topics in the front side of the point cloud pre-processor. - **YabLoc** The YabLoc stopper relays input image topics in the frontend of the image pre-processor. YabLoc includes a particle filter process that operates on a timer, and even when image topics are not streamed, the particle prediction process continues to work. To address this, the YabLoc stopper also has a service client for explicitly stopping and resuming YabLoc. - **Eagleye** The Eagleye stopper relays Eagleye's output pose topics in the backend of Eagleye's estimation process. Eagleye performs time-series processing internally, and it can't afford to stop the input stream. Furthermore, Eagleye's estimation process is lightweight enough to be run continuously without a significant load, so the relay is inserted in the backend. - **ArTag** The ArTag stopper relays image topics in the front side of the landmark localizer.

How to launch

Changelog for package autoware_pose_estimator_arbiter

0.44.0 (2025-04-18)

0.43.0 (2025-03-21)

• Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into chore/bump-version-0.43
• chore: rename from [autoware.universe]{.title-ref} to [autoware_universe]{.title-ref} (#10306)
• Contributors: Hayato Mizushima, Yutaka Kondo

0.42.0 (2025-03-03)

• Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into tmp/bot/bump_version_base
• feat(autoware_utils): replace autoware_universe_utils with autoware_utils (#10191)
• Contributors: Fumiya Watanabe, 心刚

0.41.2 (2025-02-19)

• chore: bump version to 0.41.1 (#10088)
• Contributors: Ryohsuke Mitsudome

0.41.1 (2025-02-10)

0.41.0 (2025-01-29)

0.40.0 (2024-12-12)

• Merge branch 'main' into release-0.40.0
• Revert "chore(package.xml): bump version to 0.39.0 (#9587)" This reverts commit c9f0f2688c57b0f657f5c1f28f036a970682e7f5.
• fix: fix ticket links in CHANGELOG.rst (#9588)
• chore(package.xml): bump version to 0.39.0 (#9587)
  • chore(package.xml): bump version to 0.39.0
  • fix: fix ticket links in CHANGELOG.rst

  * fix: remove unnecessary diff ---------Co-authored-by: Yutaka Kondo <<yutaka.kondo@youtalk.jp>>

• fix: fix ticket links in CHANGELOG.rst (#9588)
• fix(cpplint): include what you use - localization (#9567)
• 0.39.0
• update changelog
• fix: fix ticket links to point to https://github.com/autowarefoundation/autoware_universe (#9304)
• fix(autoware_pose_estimator_arbiter): add missing include (#9376)
• fix: fix ticket links to point to https://github.com/autowarefoundation/autoware_universe (#9304)
• chore(package.xml): bump version to 0.38.0 (#9266) (#9284)
  • unify package.xml version to 0.37.0
  • remove system_monitor/CHANGELOG.rst
  • add changelog

  * 0.38.0

• Contributors: Esteve Fernandez, Fumiya Watanabe, M. Fatih Cırıt, Ryohsuke Mitsudome, Ryuta Kambe, Yutaka Kondo

0.39.0 (2024-11-25)

• fix: fix ticket links to point to https://github.com/autowarefoundation/autoware_universe (#9304)
• fix: fix ticket links to point to https://github.com/autowarefoundation/autoware_universe (#9304)
• chore(package.xml): bump version to 0.38.0 (#9266) (#9284)
  • unify package.xml version to 0.37.0
  • remove system_monitor/CHANGELOG.rst
  • add changelog

  * 0.38.0

• Contributors: Esteve Fernandez, Yutaka Kondo

0.38.0 (2024-11-08)

• unify package.xml version to 0.37.0
• refactor(ndt_scan_matcher)!: prefix package and namespace with autoware (#8904) add autoware_ prefix
• refactor(pose_estimator_arbiter)!: prefix package and namespace with autoware (#8386)
  • add autoware_ prefix
  • add autoware_ prefix
  • fix link for landmark_based_localizer

  * remove Shadowing ---------Co-authored-by: SakodaShintaro <<shintaro.sakoda@tier4.jp>>

• Contributors: Masaki Baba, Yutaka Kondo

0.26.0 (2024-04-03)