New in Fuerte

Overview

This package contains launch files for using a Microsoft Kinect using the libfreenect library. This folder replicates the API offered by openni_launch in an effort to maintain maximum compatibility with the OpenNI driver. Differences are mentioned below.

To use this package, please refer to openni_launch and rgbd_launch documentation. The migration guide to/from the OpenNI driver is documented here.

The main launch script can be run using the following command:

roslaunch freenect_launch freenect.launch

Modifications from openni_launch

freenect_launch contains a few modifications from openni_launch apart from running the libfreenect based driver. These are documented below.

freenect_launch vs openni_launch

• freenect.launch does not support selecting the Kinect using the USB bus address. It also does not support every image mode provided by openni.launch. See the migration guide for more info.

• freenect.launch supports additional parameters for launching kinects under different namespaces. See freenect-ns.launch for an example.

• freenect.launch includes parameters for enabling diagnostics support in the freenect_camera driver. Useful for debugging a working system. See freenect-diagnostics.launch for an example on how to use these parameters.

• freenect.launch can also enable verbose libfreenect output. Useful for debugging errors. Use freenect-debug.launch to see how to enable verbose output.

Additional Launch Files

There are a few additional launch files in freenect_launch that demonstrate running a different constellation of nodelets. This is useful for launching the minimum set of required processing nodelets, as well as avoid unnecessary warnings during launch. For example:

• freenect-xyz.launch - provides the pointcloud /camera/depth/points. Disables device registration.

• freenect-registered-xyzrgb.launch - provides the pointcloud /camera/depth_registered/points. Enables device registration.