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tag_based_sfm_calibrator package from calibrationtools repo

ground_plane_calibrator interactive_camera_lidar_calibrator ceres_intrinsic_camera_calibrator intrinsic_camera_calibrator lidar_to_lidar_2d_calibrator mapping_based_calibrator marker_radar_lidar_calibrator tag_based_pnp_calibrator tag_based_sfm_calibrator point_cloud_accumulator tier4_calibration_pcl_extensions tier4_calibration_views tier4_ground_plane_utils tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs tier4_tag_utils sensor_calibration_manager sensor_calibration_tools tunable_static_tf_broadcaster

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Package Summary

Tags	No category tags.
Version	0.0.1
License	BSD
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Description	sensor calibration tools for autonomous driving and robotics
Checkout URI	https://github.com/tier4/calibrationtools.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	tier4/universe
Last Updated	2025-07-31
Dev Status	UNKNOWN
Released	UNRELEASED
Tags	computer-vision camera-calibration calibration autonomous-driving ros2 autoware sensor-calibration lidar-calibration robtics
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

The tag_based_sfm_calibrator package

Additional Links

No additional links.

Maintainers

Kenzo Lobos Tsunekawa

Authors

No additional authors.

calibrators/tag_based_sfm_calibrator/README.md

tag_based_sfm_calibrator

A tutorial for this calibrator can be found here.

Purpose

The tag_based_sfm_calibrator package performs extrinsic calibration among most sensors and frames used in autonomous driving and robotics. In particular, it allows the following extrinsic calibrations:

base_frame (e.g., base_link)
cameras
lidars (see the list of supported lidars for Lidartag [1] detection in our repository)

Note: depending on how this tool is configured it can perform the following calibrations:

base-camera(s)
base-lidar(s)
camera-camera(s)
lidar-lidar(s)
camera(s)-lidar(s)
base-camera(s)-lidar(s)

Inner-workings / Algorithms

As the name of the calibrator suggests, this tool relies upon SfM (Structure from Motion) to find the extrinsics between different sensors. However, since we prioritize calibration accuracy, we do not use natural features and local descriptors, but fiducial systems (in our case apriltags/lidartags). Furthermore, since the sensors are attached to a still vehicle, we employ an additional camera (from now on referred to as the external camera), which we use to create a graph and connect the different vehicle’s sensors, which we optimize using standard bundling adjustment. By using a particular sensor as the origin during bundle adjustment, the other sensor’s poses correspond to the desired extrinsics.

Base calibration, on the other hand, can not be directly formulated as a sensor calibration problem (since the base is not a sensor !). We instead formulate an indirect approach to find the base_link by using its definitions: a frame between the rear axle projected to the ground. We place two tags in each of the rear wheels and then define the base_link as the intersection between these two tags projected into the ground.

ROS Interfaces

Input

Name	Type	Description
`{calibration_lidar_detections_topics}`	`lidartag_msgs::msg::` `LidarTagDetectionArray`	Lidartag detections. `calibration_lidar_detections_topics` is provided via parameters
`{calibration_camera_detections_topics}`	`apriltag_msgs::msg::` `AprilTagDetectionArray`	Apriltag detections. `calibration_camera_detections_topics` is provided via parameters
`{calibration_compressed_image_topics}`	`sensor_msgs::msg::` `CompressedImage`	Calibration cameras’ image topics. Not used directly for calibration but for debugging and evaluation. `{calibration_compressed_image_topics}` is provided via parameters
`{calibration_camera_info_topics}`	`sensor_msgs::msg::` `CameraInfo`	Intrinsic parameters for the calibration cameras . `calibration_camera_info_topics` is provided via parameters

Output

Name	Type	Description
`markers`	`visualization_msgs::msg::MarkerArray`	Calibration markers
`raw_detections_markers`	`visualization_msgs::msg::MarkerArray`	Detection markers

Services

Name	Type	Description
`extrinsic_calibration`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::` `srv::ExtrinsicCalibrator`	Generic calibration service. The call is blocking and only returns when the calibration process finishes
`add_external_camera_` `images_to_scenes`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::` `srv::FilesListSrv`	Provides a list of external camera images’ files for each `scene`
`add_calibration_sensor_` `detections_to_new_scene`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::srv::Empty`	Creates a new `scene` from the latest detections received by the node
`load_external_camera_intrinsics`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::srv::FilesSrv`	Provides a file containing previously computed external camera intrinsics
`save_external_camera_intrinsics`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::srv::FilesSrv`	Provides a path to save the computed external camera intrinsics
`calibrate_external_camera_intrinsics`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::srv::FilesSrv`	Provides a list of files of external camera images to perform intrinsic calibration for the external camera
`process_scenes`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::srv::Empty`	Processes all the obtained `scenes`, mainly applying the tag detector to the external images
`calibrate`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::srv::Empty`	Uses the processed `scenes` to perform `bundling adjustment` optimization
`load_database`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::srv::FilesSrv`	For debugging purposes. Loads a processed database of `scenes`
`save_database`	`tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs::srv::FilesSrv`	For debugging purposes. Saves a processed database of `scenes`

Parameters

Core Parameters

Name	Type	Default Value	Description
`publish_tfs`	`bool`		Flag to optionally publish the resulting calibration as tfs
`write_debug_images`	`bool`		Flag to optionally create images with the resulting calibration poses and detections
`base_frame`	`std::string`	`base_link`	The `base_frame` is used to compare the initial and calibrated values
`main_calibration_sensor_frame`	`std::string`		The sensor whose frame will act as the origin during optimization
`calibration_lidar_frames`	`std::vector<std::string>`		List of the calibration lidars’ frames
`calibration_camera_frames`	`std::vector<std::string>`		List of calibration cameras’ frames
`lidartag_to_apriltag_scale`	`double`		The scale factor for converting lidartag detection sizes to apriltag detection sizes
`auxiliar_tag.family`	`std::string`		The family name of the auxiliary tags
`auxiliar_tag.rows`	`int`		The number of rows in the auxiliary tags
`auxiliar_tag.cols`	`int`		The number of columns in the auxiliary tags
`auxiliar_tag.size`	`double`		The size of the auxiliary tags in meters
`auxiliar_tag.spacing`	`double`		The spacing between auxiliary tags (as a proportion relative to the tag size). Only relevant when rows or cols is greater than one
`auxiliar_tag.ids`	`std::vector<int64_t>`		The auxiliar tag IDs
`waypoint_tag.family`	`std::string`		The family name of the waypoint tag
`waypoint_tag.rows`	`int`		The number of rows in the waypoint tag
`waypoint_tag.cols`	`int`		The number of columns in the waypoint tag
`waypoint_tag.size`	`double`		The size of the waypoint tag in meters
`waypoint_tag.spacing`	`double`		The spacing between waypoint tags (as a proportion relative to the tag size). Only relevant when rows or cols is greater than one
`waypoint_tag.ids`	`std::vector<int64_t>`		The waypoint tag IDs
`ground_tag.family`	`std::string`		The family name of the ground tag
`ground_tag.rows`	`int`		The number of rows in the ground tag
`ground_tag.cols`	`int`		The number of columns in the ground tag
`ground_tag.size`	`double`		The size of the ground tag in meters
`ground_tag.spacing`	`double`		The spacing between ground tags (as a proportion relative to the tag size). Only relevant when rows or cols is greater than one
`ground_tag.ids`	`std::vector<int64_t>`		The ground tags IDs
`wheel_tag.family`	`std::string`		The family name of the wheel tag
`wheel_tag.rows`	`int`		The number of rows in the wheel tag
`wheel_tag.cols`	`int`		The number of columns in the wheel tag
`wheel_tag.size`	`double`		The size of the wheel tag in meters
`wheel_tag.spacing`	`double`		The spacing between wheel tags (as a proportion relative to the tag size). Only relevant when rows or cols is greater than one

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

CHANGELOG

No CHANGELOG found.

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	autoware_cmake
	ament_cmake_auto
	ament_cmake_python
	rclpy
	apriltag
	apriltag_msgs
	autoware_universe_utils
	cv_bridge
	geometry_msgs
	image_geometry
	image_transport
	lidartag_msgs
	pcl_conversions
	pcl_ros
	rclcpp
	sensor_msgs
	std_msgs
	std_srvs
	tf2
	tf2_eigen
	tf2_geometry_msgs
	tf2_ros
	tier4_ground_plane_utils
	tier4_sensor_calibration_msgs
	tier4_tag_utils
	visualization_msgs

System Dependencies

Name
eigen
libboost-filesystem
libboost-serialization
libceres-dev
libgoogle-glog-dev

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
sensor_calibration_manager
sensor_calibration_tools

Launch files

launch/apriltag_detector.launch.xml
- - ns [default: ]
  - image_compressed_topic
  - camera_info_topic
  - filtered_detections_topic [default: apriltag/filtered/detections_array]
  - apriltag_detector_families
launch/calibrator.launch.xml
- - ns [default: ]
  - rviz [default: true]
  - calibration_service_name [default: extrinsic_calibration]
  - config_file [default: omiya_calibration_room_2023.param.yaml]
  - publish_tfs [default: true]
  - fixed_ground_plane_model [default: false]
  - base_frame [default: base_link]
  - main_calibration_sensor_frame
  - calibration_lidar_0_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_1_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_2_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_3_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_4_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_5_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_6_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_7_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_0_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_1_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_2_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_3_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_4_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_5_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_6_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_7_frame [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_0_model [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_1_model [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_2_model [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_3_model [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_4_model [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_5_model [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_6_model [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_7_model [default: ]
  - calibration_lidar_0_topic [default: /null]
  - calibration_lidar_1_topic [default: /null]
  - calibration_lidar_2_topic [default: /null]
  - calibration_lidar_3_topic [default: /null]
  - calibration_lidar_4_topic [default: /null]
  - calibration_lidar_5_topic [default: /null]
  - calibration_lidar_6_topic [default: /null]
  - calibration_lidar_7_topic [default: /null]
  - calibration_camera_info_0_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_info_1_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_info_2_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_info_3_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_info_4_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_info_5_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_info_6_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_info_7_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_compressed_image_0_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_compressed_image_1_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_compressed_image_2_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_compressed_image_3_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_compressed_image_4_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_compressed_image_5_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_compressed_image_6_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_compressed_image_7_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_0_detections_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_1_detections_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_2_detections_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_3_detections_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_4_detections_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_5_detections_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_6_detections_topic [default: ]
  - calibration_camera_7_detections_topic [default: ]
  - auxiliar_tag_ids [default: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49]]
  - waypoint_tag_ids [default: [0, 3, 4, 5]]
  - ground_tag_ids [default: [50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99]]
  - left_wheel_tag_id [default: 22]
  - right_wheel_tag_id [default: 26]
launch/lidartag_detector.launch.xml
- - ns [default: ]
  - pointcloud_topic
  - filtered_detections_topic [default: lidartag/filtered/detections_array]
  - lidar_model

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

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