iLidar ROS Packages

ROS 1 C++ packages for the iTFS and iTFS-LITE product families.

Version: V2.0.2

Warning

ROS Kinetic, Melodic, and Noetic have reached end of life. These packages are maintained for existing ROS 1 deployments.

Quick Start

Create a catkin workspace and place this repository under its src directory:

mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/ilidar-tof/ilidar-ros.git

source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
cd ~/catkin_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
catkin_make -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
source devel/setup.bash

Launch the viewer for the connected product:

# iTFS
roslaunch ilidar_itfs_ros viewer.launch

# iTFS-LITE
roslaunch ilidar_lite_ros viewer.launch

Each viewer discovers connected sensors and creates one RViz group per serial number. Closing RViz also stops the driver included by viewer.launch.

Package Overview

Directory	ROS package	Target	Description
itfs/	ilidar_itfs_ros	iTFS	Images, calibrated point cloud, TF, diagnostics, and RViz
lite/	ilidar_lite_ros	iTFS-LITE	Images, CameraInfo, point cloud, TF, diagnostics, and RViz

Interfaces

Package	Data outputs	Status output	Info output
ilidar_itfs_ros	sensor_msgs/Image, sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	diagnostic_msgs/DiagnosticArray	std_msgs/String
ilidar_lite_ros	sensor_msgs/Image, sensor_msgs/CameraInfo, sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	diagnostic_msgs/DiagnosticArray	std_msgs/String

Sensor configuration, firmware, flash, and calibration operations are outside these receive-side ROS packages. Configure the sensor with its dedicated tool before starting a driver.

Dependencies and Platform Support

The drivers use roscpp, standard ROS message packages, tf2_ros, and pthreads. The viewers additionally require rospy, RViz, and PyYAML. OpenCV, PCL, and Open3D are not required.

Ubuntu	ROS 1	Compiler baseline	Validation
16.04	Kinetic	GCC 5 / C++14	Build verified
18.04	Melodic	GCC 7 / C++14	Build verified
20.04	Noetic	GCC 9 / C++14	Build and sensor runtime verified

Run

Source the workspace in every terminal before launching a package:

source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

iTFS

# Driver only
roslaunch ilidar_itfs_ros itfs.launch

# Driver and RViz with automatic sensor discovery
roslaunch ilidar_itfs_ros viewer.launch

# Create known RViz groups immediately
roslaunch ilidar_itfs_ros viewer.launch sensor_sns:="2405,2406"

Verify the connection using the detected serial number:

rostopic echo -n 1 /ilidar_2405/info
rostopic echo -n 1 /ilidar_2405/depth/image_raw/encoding

iTFS-LITE

# Driver only
roslaunch ilidar_lite_ros lite.launch

# Driver and RViz with automatic sensor discovery
roslaunch ilidar_lite_ros viewer.launch

# Create known RViz groups immediately
roslaunch ilidar_lite_ros viewer.launch sensor_sns:="87,88,101"

Verify the connection using the detected serial number:

rostopic echo -n 1 /ilidar_lite_87/info
rostopic echo -n 1 /ilidar_lite_87/depth/image_raw/encoding

The sensor_sns argument creates RViz groups but does not filter devices accepted by the driver. Use fixed_frame:=<frame> when configured sensors do not share the default base_link.

Product Data Differences

Item	iTFS	iTFS-LITE
Topic prefix	/ilidar_<SN>	/ilidar_lite_<SN>
Images	Depth, intensity/gray	Depth, amplitude, intensity, confidence
Image encodings	Depth/intensity mono16	Depth/amplitude/intensity mono16, confidence mono8
Point field	Optional intensity	Optional amplitude
CameraInfo	Not published; mapping uses a direction table	Published for depth
Special mode	Capture mode 0 publishes gray as intensity	Output depends on configured data_output

Both packages publish organized XYZ in meters, static TF, sensor information, and diagnostics.

License

The ROS wrappers and included SDK source are licensed under the MIT License. Copyright 2022-Present HYBO Inc. See LICENSE. Third-party ROS, RViz, and system dependencies retain their own licenses.