RVIZ Carla Plugin

The RVIZ plugin provides a visualization tool based on the RVIZ ROS package.

Run ROS bridge with RVIZ

ros_rviz

The RVIZ plugin expects an ego vehicle named ego_vehicle. To see an example of ROS-bridge working with RVIZ, execute the following commands with a CARLA server running:

1. Start the ROS bridge with RVIZ enabled:

# ROS 1
roslaunch carla_ros_bridge carla_ros_bridge.launch

# ROS 2
ros2 launch carla_ros_bridge carla_ros_bridge.launch.py

2. Start RVIZ:

# ROS 1
rosrun rviz rviz

# ROS 2
ros2 run rviz2 rviz2

2. Spawn an ego vehicle with the carla_spawn_objects package:

# ROS 1
roslaunch carla_spawn_objects carla_spawn_objects.launch

# ROS 2
ros2 launch carla_spawn_objects carla_spawn_objects.launch.py

3. Control the ego vehicle with the carla_manual_control package (press B to enable manual steering):

# ROS 1
roslaunch carla_manual_control carla_manual_control.launch

# ROS 2
ros2 launch carla_manual_control carla_manual_control.launch.py

Features of the RVIZ plugin

  • Visualization of the ego vehicle state - Visualize the vehicle position and control.
  • Provide RVIZ view pose to other nodes - With an actor.pseudo.control attached to a camera, move the camera around in the CARLA world by publishing a Pose message.
  • Visualization of sensors - Visualize RGB, LIDAR, depth, DVS and semanatic segmentation camera information.
  • Execute scenarios - Use the carla_ros_scenario_runner package to trigger scenarios.
  • Play/Pause the simulation - If started in synchronous mode, you can play and pause the simulation.
  • Manually override ego vehicle control - Steer the vehicle by mouse by using the drive-widget from the RVIZ Visualization Tutorials and a node to convert from twist to vehicle control.

ROS API

Subscriptions

Topic Type Description
/carla/status carla_msgs/CarlaStatus Read the current status of CARLA
/carla/ego_vehicle/vehicle_status carla_msgs/CarlaEgoVehicleStatus Display the current state of the ego vehicle
/carla/ego_vehicle/odometry nav_msgs/Odometry Display the current pose of the ego vehicle
/scenario_runner/status carla_ros_scenario_runner_types/CarlaScenarioRunnerStatus Visualize the scenario runner status
/carla/available_scenarios carla_ros_scenario_runner_types/CarlaScenarioList Provides a list of scenarios to execute (disabled in combo box)


Publications

Topic Type Description
/carla/control carla_msgs/CarlaControl Play/pause/step CARLA
/carla/ego_vehicle/spectator_pose geometry_msgs/PoseStamped Publish the current pose of the RVIZ camera view
/carla/ego_vehicle/vehicle_control_manual_override std_msgs/Bool Enable/disable vehicle control override
/carla/ego_vehicle/twist geometry_msgs/Twist The twist command, created via mouse


Services

Topic Type Description
/scenario_runner/execute_scenario carla_ros_scenario_runner_types/ExecuteScenario Execute the selected scenario