flir_ptu

ROS 2 driver for FLIR PTUs. Currently tested with:

• FLIR D46 using tty
• FLIR E46 using either tty or tcp
• FLIR D48E using either tty or tcp
• FLIR PTU-5 using either tty or tcp

Usage

This repository contains the description and driver ROS 2 packages for the FLIR D46, E46, D48E, and PTU-5 pan-tilt units. Refer to FLIR's documentation for physically connecting the unit to your robot.

The driver supports both TTY (serial) and TCP (Ethernet) connections between the robot's PC and the PTU.

Add the flir_ptu macro to your URDF, making sure to add a joint between the mounting location and ${name}_base_link. The model parameter selects the variant (supported values: ptu5, d46):

<xacro:include filename="$(find flir_ptu_description)/urdf/flir_ptu.urdf.xacro" />
<xacro:flir_ptu name="ptu" model="ptu5" />
<joint name="ptu_base_joint" type="fixed">
  <parent link="base_link" />
  <child link="ptu_base_link" />
  <origin xyz="0.24 0.0 -0.13" rpy="0 0 0" />
</joint>

The model can also be wired up to a top-level xacro arg:

<xacro:arg name="ptu_model" default="ptu5" />
<xacro:include filename="$(find flir_ptu_description)/urdf/flir_ptu.urdf.xacro" />
<xacro:flir_ptu name="ptu" model="$(arg ptu_model)" />

Driver configuration is supplied via a YAML parameter file. See flir_ptu_driver/config/ptu.yaml for the full set of parameters and their defaults. To launch the driver with the default config:

ros2 launch flir_ptu_driver ptu.launch.py

To launch with a custom parameter file:

ros2 launch flir_ptu_driver ptu.launch.py params_file:=/path/to/my_ptu.yaml

An example TCP config:

/**:
  ros__parameters:
    connection_type: "tcp"
    ip_addr: "192.168.131.70"
    tcp_port: 4000
    hz: 10
    limits_enabled: false
    default_velocity: 0.0
    joint_name_prefix: "ptu_"

An example TTY config:

/**:
  ros__parameters:
    connection_type: "tty"
    port: "/dev/ptu"
    baud: 9600
    hz: 10
    limits_enabled: false
    default_velocity: 0.0
    joint_name_prefix: "ptu_"

Topics

Publications:

• state (remapped to /joint_states by the launch file): sensor_msgs/msg/JointState — the current pan and tilt actuator positions and velocities.
• /diagnostics: diagnostic_msgs/msg/DiagnosticArray — connection state, PTU mode, pan/tilt limits, live position/velocity, communication error count, and a frequency monitor on joint_states.

Subscriptions:

• cmd: sensor_msgs/msg/JointState — command the PTU to move to the desired angle at the requested speed.
• reset: std_msgs/msg/Empty — publish an empty message to reset (home) the PTU.

When publishing to the cmd topic, the name, position, and velocity arrays must each be of length 2, with the pan actuator first and the tilt actuator second. The effort field is ignored.

ros2 topic pub --once /ptu/cmd sensor_msgs/msg/JointState \
  "{name: ['ptu_pan', 'ptu_tilt'], position: [0.3, -0.2], velocity: [0.6, 0.6]}"

A convenience script is also provided for quick commanding from the terminal:

ros2 run flir_ptu_driver cmd_angles <pan_rad> <tilt_rad> [velocity]

For example, to pan to 0.3 rad and tilt to -0.2 rad at 0.6 rad/s:

ros2 run flir_ptu_driver cmd_angles 0.3 -0.2 0.6

Positive pan angles rotate the unit to the left; negative angles rotate it to the right.

Positive tilt angles rotate the unit upward; negative angles rotate it downward.

Visualization

The flir_ptu_viz package provides RViz launch files to visualize the PTU:

# View the PTU model alone (defaults to the PTU-5)
ros2 launch flir_ptu_viz view_model.launch.py

# Select a different supported model
ros2 launch flir_ptu_viz view_model.launch.py model:=d46

# View the PTU driven by the live driver
ros2 launch flir_ptu_viz view_ptu.launch.py

License

This repo originated at Washington University, where the code was licensed as GPLv2. The initial copy was made at svn revision r2226.

Thanks to Nick Hawes (@hawesie) for the first pass at catkinizing this repo.