PointCloud2 to PCL PointCloud Conversion

Convert sensor_msgs::PointCloud2 objects coming from the velodyne_pointcloud driver to pcl::PointCloud<velodyne_pcl::PointXYZIRT> objects.

The sensor_msgs::PointCloud2 ROS message is constructed by using the PointcloudXYZIRT, or the OrganizedCloudXYZIRT container. Both define the following channels:

• x - The x coord in Cartesian coordinates
• y - The y coord in Cartesian coordinates
• z - The z coord in Cartesian coordinates
• intensity - The measured intensity at the point
• ring - The ring number of the laser
• time - The time stamp of the measured point

To convert a sensor_msgs::PointCloud2 published by the velodyne driver to PCL you could use the following code:

#include <pcl_conversions/pcl_conversions.h>
#include <velodyne_pcl/point_types.h>
#include <pcl/PCLPointCloud2.h>
#include <pcl/conversions.h>

void cloud_callback(const boost::shared_ptr<const sensor_msgs::PointCloud2>& cloud){

  pcl::PCLPointCloud2 pcl_pointcloud2;
  pcl_conversions::toPCL(*cloud, pcl_pointcloud2);
  pcl::PointCloud<velodyne_pcl::PointXYZIRT>::Ptr pcl_cloud_ptr(new pcl::PointCloud<velodyne_pcl::PointXYZIRT>);
  pcl::fromPCLPointCloud2(pcl_pointcloud2, *pcl_cloud_ptr);

  // use pcl_cloud_ptr
}

Changelog for package velodyne_pcl

1.7.0 (2022-07-08)

• Use std::uint16_t to reduce build warnings from PCL (#449)
• Contributors: icolwell-as

1.6.1 (2020-11-09)

• Fix typo in velodyne_pcl/point_types.h (#357) Fixes an issue where the POINT_CLOUD_REGISTER_POINT_STRUCT function was using the old PointXYZIR and not PointXYZIRT.
• Contributors: Matthew Hannay

1.6.0 (2020-07-09)

• Velodyne pcl (#335)
  • fix time assignment in organized cloud container
  • add velodyne_pcl package with point_types.h
  • rename containers to cover the added time property
  • Adding roslint to velodyne_pcl. (#1)
  • Update CMake version to 3.5

  * Update package.xml to Format2 and package version to 1.5.2 Co-authored-by: Joshua Whitley <<josh.whitley@autoware.org>>

• Contributors: Sebastian Pütz

1.5.2 (2019-01-28)

1.5.1 (2018-12-10)

1.5.0 (2018-10-19)

1.4.0 (2018-09-19)

1.3.0 (2017-11-10)

• remove velodyne_pcl from velodyne stack trunk
• make INFO message on every pointcloud a DEBUG message
• finished reorganization + splitting up of the nodes + changed velodyne/pcl_points2 topic name to velodyne/pointcloud
• reorganized the package, and renamed ExamplePublisher to Publisher
• run transform2 nodelet
• fixed issues in nodelets, equated nodes to match nodelets - there was some issue with using KdTree in the nodelet that I did not have time to debug - so it has been removed
• created example nodelets for the corresponding nodes
• some pretty printing + fixed subscriber to do euclidean cluster extraction using PCL
• fixed bugs in example code
• added a couple of examples using the pcl_ros bridge
• add waitForTransform() before transforming point cloud packet
• change convertPoints() to use PointCloud2ConstPtr for input
• add nodelet to assign colors to laser rings for visualization
• remove redundant typedefs
• add transform2 nodelet unit test
• add PCL transform to transform2 nodelet
• check in omitted nodelets.xml update
• create initial transform2 nodelet from cloud2 nodelet
• nodelet test now works, remove "broken" label
• set props to Id
• publish PointCloud2 for each scan in nodelet
• Prepare cloud2 nodelet for accumulating data for a whole scan (incomplete). Add Velodyne::xyz_scans_t typedef.
• set Id property on test files
• add simple unit tests of node and nodelet publication rates -- nodelet currently fails the test
• remove cerr printing, nodelet now runs
• fixed nodelets.xml so that nodelet is correctly visible
• use new point_types header in nodelet, too
• Add exported header file for custom Velodyne point types. Use new velodyne::PointXYZIR custom point type in cloud2 node. Print std::cerr message when nodelet methods entered (nothing shows).
• fixed issue with custom pcl point type in cloud2_nodelet
• library path correction
• small nodelet improvements
• Make Velodyne:: namespace references explicit. Accumulate data using PointCloud<PointXYZI> instead of PointCloud2. Delete some unnecessary cruft.
• comment out enough so nodelet will at least compile
• add nodelets.xml export
• experimental stack for PCL output
• Contributors: austinrobot, jack.oquin, piyushk