Rviz Panel Tutorial (#4869)

Signed-off-by: David V. Lu!! <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Katherine Scott <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Katherine Scott <[email protected]>

Author: DLu

source/Tutorials/Intermediate/RViz/RViz-Custom-Panel/RViz-Custom-Panel.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,351 @@
+Building a Custom RViz Panel
+============================
+
+This tutorial is for people who would like to work within the RViz environment to either display or interact with some data in a two-dimensional environment.
+
+In this tutorial you will learn how to do three things within RViz:
+
+* Create a new QT panel within RViz.
+* Create a topic subscriber within RViz that can monitor messages published on that topic and display them within the RViz panel.
+* Create a topic publisher such button presses within RViz publish to an output topic in ROS.
+
+All of the code for this tutorial can be found in `this repository <https://github.com/MetroRobots/rviz_panel_tutorial>`__.
+
+Boilerplate Code
+----------------
+
+Header File
+^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Here are the contents of ``demo_panel.hpp``
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+   #ifndef RVIZ_PANEL_TUTORIAL__DEMO_PANEL_HPP_
+   #define RVIZ_PANEL_TUTORIAL__DEMO_PANEL_HPP_
+
+   #include <rviz_common/panel.hpp>
+
+   namespace rviz_panel_tutorial
+   {
+   class DemoPanel
+     : public rviz_common::Panel
+   {
+     Q_OBJECT
+   public:
+     explicit DemoPanel(QWidget * parent = 0);
+     ~DemoPanel() override;
+   };
+   }  // namespace rviz_panel_tutorial
+
+   #endif  // RVIZ_PANEL_TUTORIAL__DEMO_PANEL_HPP_
+
+* We're extending the `rviz_common::Panel <https://github.com/ros2/rviz/blob/9a94bdf2f5f92ccdac4037c9268b95940845d609/rviz_common/include/rviz_common/panel.hpp#L46>`__ class.
+* `For reasons outside the scope of this tutorial <https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/moc.html>`__, you need the ``Q_OBJECT`` macro in there to get the QT parts of the GUI to work.
+* We start by declaring just a constructor and destructor, implemented in the cpp file.
+
+Source File
+^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+``demo_panel.cpp``
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+   #include <rviz_panel_tutorial/demo_panel.hpp>
+
+   namespace rviz_panel_tutorial
+   {
+   DemoPanel::DemoPanel(QWidget* parent) : Panel(parent)
+   {
+   }
+
+   DemoPanel::~DemoPanel() = default;
+   }  // namespace rviz_panel_tutorial
+
+   #include <pluginlib/class_list_macros.hpp>
+   PLUGINLIB_EXPORT_CLASS(rviz_panel_tutorial::DemoPanel, rviz_common::Panel)
+
+* Overriding the constructor and deconstructor are not strictly necessary, but we can do more with them later.
+* In order for RViz to find our plugin, we need this ``PLUGINLIB`` invocation in our code (as well as other things below).
+
+package.xml
+^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+We need the following dependencies in our package.xml:
+
+.. code-block:: xml
+
+     <depend>pluginlib</depend>
+     <depend>rviz_common</depend>
+
+rviz_common_plugins.xml
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+.. code-block:: xml
+
+   <library path="demo_panel">
+     <class type="rviz_panel_tutorial::DemoPanel" base_class_type="rviz_common::Panel">
+       <description></description>
+     </class>
+   </library>
+
+* This is standard ``pluginlib`` code.
+
+  * The library ``path`` is the name of the library we'll assign in the CMake.
+  * The class should match the ``PLUGINLIB`` invocation from above.
+
+* We'll come back to the description later, I promise.
+
+CMakeLists.txt
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Add the following lines to the top of the standard boilerplate.
+
+.. code-block:: cmake
+
+   find_package(ament_cmake_ros REQUIRED)
+   find_package(pluginlib REQUIRED)
+   find_package(rviz_common REQUIRED)
+
+   set(CMAKE_AUTOMOC ON)
+   qt5_wrap_cpp(MOC_FILES
+     include/rviz_panel_tutorial/demo_panel.hpp
+   )
+
+   add_library(demo_panel src/demo_panel.cpp ${MOC_FILES})
+   target_include_directories(demo_panel PUBLIC
+     $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include>
+     $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include>
+   )
+   ament_target_dependencies(demo_panel
+     pluginlib
+     rviz_common
+   )
+   install(TARGETS demo_panel
+           EXPORT export_rviz_panel_tutorial
+           ARCHIVE DESTINATION lib
+           LIBRARY DESTINATION lib
+           RUNTIME DESTINATION bin
+   )
+   install(DIRECTORY include/
+           DESTINATION include
+   )
+   install(FILES rviz_common_plugins.xml
+           DESTINATION share/${PROJECT_NAME}
+   )
+   ament_export_include_directories(include)
+   ament_export_targets(export_rviz_panel_tutorial)
+   pluginlib_export_plugin_description_file(rviz_common rviz_common_plugins.xml)
+
+
+* To generate the proper Qt files, we need to
+
+  * Turn ``CMAKE_AUTOMOC`` on.
+  * Wrap the headers by calling ``qt5_wrap_cpp`` with each header that has ``Q_OBJECT`` in it.
+  * Include the ``MOC_FILES`` in the library alongside our other cpp files.
+
+* A lot of the other code ensures that the plugin portion works.
+  Namely, calling ``pluginlib_export_plugin_description_file`` is essential to getting RViz to find your new plugin.
+
+Testing it out
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Compile your code, source your workspace and run ``rviz2``.
+
+In the top Menu bar, there should be a "Panels" menu.
+Select "Add New Panel" from that menu.
+
+.. image:: images/Select0.png
+   :target: images/Select0.png
+   :alt: screenshot of Add New Panel dialog
+
+A dialog will pop up showing all the panels accessible in your ROS environment, grouped into folders based on their ROS package.
+Create a new instance of your panel by either double clicking on its name, or selecting it and clicking OK.
+
+This should create a new panel in your RViz window, albeit with nothing but a title bar with the name of your panel.
+
+.. image:: images/RViz0.png
+   :target: images/RViz0.png
+   :alt: screenshot of the whole RViz window showing the new simple panel
+
+Filling in the Panel
+--------------------
+We're going to update our panel with some very basic ROS/QT interaction.
+What we will do, roughly, is access the ROS node from within RViz that can both subscribe and publish to ROS topics.
+We will use our subscriber to monitor an ``/input`` topic within ROS and display the published ``String`` values in the widget.
+We use our publisher to map button presses within RViz to messages published on a ROS topic named ``/output`` .
+
+Updated Header File
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Update ``demo_panel.hpp`` to include the following includes and class Body.
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+   #include <rviz_common/panel.hpp>
+   #include <rviz_common/ros_integration/ros_node_abstraction_iface.hpp>
+   #include <std_msgs/msg/string.hpp>
+   #include <QLabel>
+   #include <QPushButton>
+
+   namespace rviz_panel_tutorial
+   {
+   class DemoPanel : public rviz_common::Panel
+   {
+     Q_OBJECT
+   public:
+     explicit DemoPanel(QWidget * parent = 0);
+     ~DemoPanel() override;
+
+     void onInitialize() override;
+
+   protected:
+     std::shared_ptr<rviz_common::ros_integration::RosNodeAbstractionIface> node_ptr_;
+     rclcpp::Publisher<std_msgs::msg::String>::SharedPtr publisher_;
+     rclcpp::Subscription<std_msgs::msg::String>::SharedPtr subscription_;
+
+     void topicCallback(const std_msgs::msg::String & msg);
+
+     QLabel* label_;
+     QPushButton* button_;
+
+   private Q_SLOTS:
+     void buttonActivated();
+   };
+   }  // namespace rviz_panel_tutorial
+
+* On the ROS side, we declare an abstract node pointer, which we will use to create interfaces to the wider ROS ecosystem.
+  We have a subscriber which will allow us to take information from ROS and use it in RViz.
+  The publisher allows us to publish information/events from within RViz and make them available in ROS.
+  We also have methods an initialization method for setting up the ROS components (``onInitialize``) and a callback for the subscriber (``topicCallback``).
+* On the QT side, we declare a label and a button, as well as a callback for the button (``buttonActivated``).
+
+Updated Source File
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Update ``demo_panel.cpp`` to have the following contents:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+   #include <rviz_panel_tutorial/demo_panel.hpp>
+   #include <QVBoxLayout>
+   #include <rviz_common/display_context.hpp>
+
+   namespace rviz_panel_tutorial
+   {
+
+   DemoPanel::DemoPanel(QWidget* parent) : Panel(parent)
+   {
+     // Create a label and a button, displayed vertically (the V in VBox means vertical)
+     const auto layout = new QVBoxLayout(this);
+     // Create a button and a label for the button
+     label_ = new QLabel("[no data]");
+     button_ = new QPushButton("GO!");
+     // Add those elements to the GUI layout
+     layout->addWidget(label_);
+     layout->addWidget(button_);
+
+     // Connect the event of when the button is released to our callback,
+     // so pressing the button results in the buttonActivated callback being called.
+     QObject::connect(button_, &QPushButton::released, this, &DemoPanel::buttonActivated);
+   }
+
+   DemoPanel::~DemoPanel() = default;
+
+   void DemoPanel::onInitialize()
+   {
+     // Access the abstract ROS Node and
+     // in the process lock it for exclusive use until the method is done.
+     node_ptr_ = getDisplayContext()->getRosNodeAbstraction().lock();
+
+     // Get a pointer to the familiar rclcpp::Node for making subscriptions/publishers
+     // (as per normal rclcpp code)
+     rclcpp::Node::SharedPtr node = node_ptr_->get_raw_node();
+
+     // Create a String publisher for the output
+     publisher_ = node->create_publisher<std_msgs::msg::String>("/output", 10);
+
+     // Create a String subscription and bind it to the topicCallback inside this class.
+     subscription_ = node->create_subscription<std_msgs::msg::String>("/input", 10, std::bind(&DemoPanel::topicCallback, this, std::placeholders::_1));
+   }
+
+   // When the subscriber gets a message, this callback is triggered,
+   // and then we copy its data into the widget's label
+   void DemoPanel::topicCallback(const std_msgs::msg::String & msg)
+   {
+     label_->setText(QString(msg.data.c_str()));
+   }
+
+   // When the widget's button is pressed, this callback is triggered,
+   // and then we publish a new message on our topic.
+   void DemoPanel::buttonActivated()
+   {
+     auto message = std_msgs::msg::String();
+     message.data = "Button clicked!";
+     publisher_->publish(message);
+   }
+
+   }  // namespace rviz_panel_tutorial
+
+   #include <pluginlib/class_list_macros.hpp>
+
+   PLUGINLIB_EXPORT_CLASS(rviz_panel_tutorial::DemoPanel, rviz_common::Panel)
+
+Testing with ROS
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+Compile and launch RViz2 with your panel again. You should see your label and button in the panel now.
+
+.. image:: images/RViz1.png
+   :target: images/RViz1.png
+   :alt: screenshot of the RViz panel in its default state
+
+To change the label, we simply have to publish a message on the ``/input`` topic, which you can do with this command:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   ros2 topic pub /input std_msgs/msg/String "{data: 'Please be kind.'}"
+
+Since the widget is subscribed to this topic, it will trigger the callback and change the text of the label.
+
+.. image:: images/RViz2.png
+   :target: images/RViz2.png
+   :alt: screenshot of the RViz panel with custom string message displayed
+
+
+Pressing the button will publish a message, which you can see by echoing the ``/output`` topic, like with this command.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   ros2 topic echo /output
+
+
+Cleanup
+-------
+
+Now its time to clean it up a bit.
+This makes things look nicer and be a little easier to use, but aren't strictly required.
+
+First, you should update the description of your plugin in ``rviz_common_plugins.xml``
+
+We also add an icon for the plugin at ``icons/classes/DemoPanel.png``.
+The folder is hardcoded, and the filename should match the name from the plugin declaration (or the name of the class if not specified).
+
+We need to install the image file in the CMake.
+
+.. code-block:: cmake
+
+   install(FILES icons/classes/DemoPanel.png
+           DESTINATION share/${PROJECT_NAME}/icons/classes
+   )
+
+Now when you add the panel, it should show up with an icon and description.
+
+.. image:: images/Select1.png
+   :target: images/Select1.png
+   :alt: screenshot of Add New Panel dialog with our custom icon and description
+
+The panel will also have an updated icon.
+
+.. image:: images/RViz3.png
+   :target: images/RViz3.png
+   :alt: screenshot of the RViz panel with custom icon

source/Tutorials/Intermediate/RViz/RViz-Custom-Panel/images/RViz0.png

@@ -12,4 +12,5 @@ RViz is a 3D visualizer for the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework.
 
    RViz-User-Guide/RViz-User-Guide
    RViz-Custom-Display/RViz-Custom-Display
+   RViz-Custom-Panel/RViz-Custom-Panel
    Marker-Display-types/Marker-Display-types