RTAB-Map's ROS package.

For more information, demos and tutorials about this package, visit rtabmap_ros page on ROS wiki.

For the RTAB-Map libraries and standalone application, visit RTAB-Map's home page or RTAB-Map's wiki.

ROS 1
ROS 2

ROS 1	Melodic
	Noetic
ROS 2	Foxy
	Galactic
	Humble
	Rolling
Docker	rtabmap_ros

Under construction: see ros2 branch.

RTAB-Map is released as binaries in the ROS distribution.

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-rtabmap-ros

When launching rtabmap_ros's nodes, if you have the error error while loading shared libraries..., try ldconfig or add the next line at the end of your ~/.bashrc to fix it:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/ros/noetic/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

• Go to docker directory for an example.

This section shows how to install RTAB-Map ros-pkg on ROS Melodic/Noetic (Catkin build).

• The next instructions assume that you have set up your ROS workspace using this tutorial. The workspace path is ~/catkin_ws and your ~/.bashrc contains:

  $ source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
  $ source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

0. Required dependencies

   • The easiest way to get all them (Qt, PCL, VTK, OpenCV, ...) is to install/uninstall rtabmap binaries:

     sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-rtabmap*
     sudo apt remove ros-$ROS_DISTRO-rtabmap*

1. Optional dependencies

   • If you want SURF/SIFT on Melodic/Noetic, you have to build OpenCV from source to have access to xfeatures2d and nonfree modules (note that SIFT is not in nonfree anymore since OpenCV 4.4.0). Install it in /usr/local (default) and rtabmap library should link with it instead of the one installed in ROS.

     • On Melodic/Noetic, build from source with xfeatures2d module (and nonfree module if needed) the same OpenCV version already installed on the system. You will then avoid breaking cv_bridge with rtabmap_ros. If you want to install a more recent OpenCV version, I recommend to uninstall libopencv* libraries (with all ros packages depending on it) and rebuild all those ros packages in your catkin workspace (to make sure cv_bridge is linked on the OpenCV version you just compiled).

   • g2o: Should be already installed by ros-$ROS_DISTRO-libg2o.

   • GTSAM: Install via PPA to avoid building from source. If you install from source, make sure to build with cmake -DGTSAM_BUILD_WITH_MARCH_NATIVE=OFF -DGTSAM_USE_SYSTEM_EIGEN=ON.

   • libpointmatcher: Recommended if you are going to use lidars. Follow their instructions to install. Should be alread installed by ros-$ROS_DISTRO-libpointmatcher.

2. Install RTAB-Map standalone libraries. Do not clone in your Catkin workspace.

   cd ~
   git clone https://github.com/introlab/rtabmap.git rtabmap
   cd rtabmap/build
   cmake ..  [<---double dots included]
   make -j6
   sudo make install

3. Install RTAB-Map ros-pkg in your src folder of your Catkin workspace.

   cd ~/catkin_ws
   git clone https://github.com/introlab/rtabmap_ros.git src/rtabmap_ros
   catkin_make -j4

   • Use catkin_make -j1 if compilation requires more RAM than you have (e.g., some files require up to ~2 GB to build depending on gcc version).
   • Options:
     • Add -DRTABMAP_SYNC_MULTI_RGBD=ON to catkin_make if you plan to use multiple cameras.
     • Add -DRTABMAP_SYNC_USER_DATA=ON to catkin_make if you plan to use user data synchronized topics.

• For latest jetpack, see this post to use docker (you will save a lot of time using the already built docker images).
• For Jetpack 4 (Ubuntu 18.04 with ROS Melodic), see this post.
• For Jetpack 3 (Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Kinetic), see this post.

###########
# rtabmap
###########
cd rtabmap
git pull origin master
cd build
make
make install
# Do "sudo make install" if you installed rtabmap in "/usr/local"

###########
# rtabmap_ros
###########
roscd rtabmap_ros
git pull origin master
roscd
cd ..
catkin_make -j1 --pkg rtabmap_ros