autoware_minimap_overlay_rviz_plugin

An RViz overlay that shows a map around the vehicle, with the goal and the route to it.

Purpose

The minimap shows where the vehicle is in the real world while you look at the 3D scene of RViz. It draws these items on map tiles of OpenStreetMap:

• The vehicle, as an arrow that points to its heading
• The goal, as a pin
• The route, as a line from the vehicle to the goal

If the goal is outside the minimap, a marker at the edge of the minimap points to the goal.

Controls on the minimap

You control the minimap with the mouse. The minimap does not pass these mouse actions to the RViz tools. A mouse button that you press outside the minimap stays with the RViz tool until you release it, also above the minimap.

Inputs / Outputs

Input

The plugin has no output topics. It downloads map tiles from the address in the Tile URL property. The default is https://tile.openstreetmap.org.

Parameters

The display has these properties in the Displays panel of RViz.

The Tile URL property (string) holds the address of the map tiles, with the placeholders {z}, {x}, and {y}. Its default is https://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png. Change it to use a tile server of your own. For the navigation styles, the tiles must have the colors of the standard OpenStreetMap style. The minimap always shows the text “© OpenStreetMap contributors”, so use only tiles that come from OpenStreetMap data.

The views:

• North Up keeps north at the top. The vehicle arrow turns.
• Heading Up turns the map, so that the vehicle arrow points to the top.
• 3D is Heading Up with a tilted map. It shows more of the road ahead of the vehicle.

The map styles:

• OpenStreetMap shows the map tiles as they are.
• Navigation Dark and Navigation Light show mainly the roads. The dark style has the charcoal of the Autoware RViz theme, and it shows the route in green, as the 3D view of RViz does. Its vehicle arrow and its goal pin are purple. The light style has the Autoware brand colors. The tile server has only one style. Thus the plugin finds the roads, the water, the buildings, and the text of each tile by their colors, and gives them new colors.

A larger minimap shows the same part of the map and the same design, with more pixels. From 362 pixels on, it uses the map tiles of the next zoom level, so that the map stays sharp. One view uses at most 8 x 8 tiles. A minimap that needs more, for example a long and narrow one, uses the tiles of a lower zoom level, and its map is less sharp.

The display also shows status lines in the Displays panel: Vehicle, Map projector, Route, and Map tiles. If the minimap does not show an item, read these lines first.

Usage

1. Start rviz2.
2. In the Displays panel, click Add.
3. In the By display type tab, select MinimapDisplay below autoware_minimap_overlay_rviz_plugin.
4. Click OK.
5. If necessary, change the properties of the display.

An example of the display in an RViz configuration file:

```yaml

• Class: autoware_minimap_overlay_rviz_plugin/MinimapDisplay Name: MinimapDisplay Enabled: true Width: 256 Height: 256 Horizontal Anchor: Left Vertical Anchor: Bottom Horizontal Margin: 10 Vertical Margin: 10 Shape: Squircle Alpha: 0.6

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Changelog for package autoware_minimap_overlay_rviz_plugin