In this video, we show how to visualize the inflation layer in RViz for ROS (Robot Operating System) Navigation.

Step 1. Create a project in ROS Development Studio(ROSDS)

ROSDS helps you follow our tutorial in a fast pace without dealing without setting up an environment locally. If you haven’t had an account yet, you can create a free account here. Let’s call the project inflation_radius.

Step 2. Clone the simulation

Please clone the husky simulation into the simulation_ws

cd ~/simulation_ws/src
git clone https://bitbucket.org/theconstructcore/husky.git
cd ..
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

Then we launch the simulation from Simulations->select launch file->main.launch

You should see the husky robot appear in a room.

We also need to launch the navigation stack with the following command

roslaunch husky_navigation move_base_demo.launch

This launch file will launch the AMCL and movebase package.

Step 3. Visualize the inflation layer

We can visualize the navigation with the Rviz tool with the following command

rosrun rviz rviz

Then we have to open the graphical tool from Tools->geaphical tool. We click add to add Robot model and map in the visualization. In the map visualization, please change the map to global cost map and the color scheme to cost map.

To configure the radius of inflation layer, you have to change the inflation_radius value in the husky_navigation/config/costmap_common.yaml file. You can make the layer small by reducing the value here.

Want to learn more?

If you are interested in this topic, please check our ROS navigation in 5 days course for more information.

Edit by: Tony Huang