Ainstein radar driver for ROS2

This is the design document for the ainstein_radar_ros2 package.

Purpose / Use cases

This package is a minimal driver responsible for receiving data from Ainstein K-77 and T-79 ZOI radars via the CAN Bus.

Overview

The package includes drivers for communicating with Ainstein's T-79 and K-77 radars via the CAN bus. Both radars can be activated using a dedicated launch file. The package uses the ros2_socketcan node to communicate with the CAN bus, which can be downloaded using the rosdep command. To use the ros2_socketcan node, the user should provide a way to communicate with the CAN Bus using a network interface.

Inputs / Outputs / API

Input

Output

Name	Type	Description
~/radar/raw_points	radar_msgs::msg::RadarReturn	raw points received from the radar
~/radar/tracked_points	radar_msgs::msg::RadarReturn	clustered groups of points into a single objects received from radar

Param file

K-77

Parameter	Type	Description
can_send_topic	String	Topic created by ros2_socketcan node to send CAN messages.
can_receive_topic	String	Topic created by ros2_socketcan node to receive CAN messages.
radar_send_raw_topic	String	Topic created by the driver to publish raw radar messages.
radar_send_tracked_topic	String	Topic created by the driver to publish tracked radar messages.
send_raw	bool	Publish radar raw messages. K-77 radar can publish one message "raw" or "tracked" at a time.
send_tracked	bool	Publish radar tracked messages. K-77 radar can publish one message "raw" or "tracked" at a time.
antenna_type	bool	Antenna type selection. Long antenna - true, short antenna - false.
frame_id	String	TF frame of radar data, default radar

T-79

Parameter	Type	Description
can_send_topic	String	Topic created by ros2_socketcan node to send CAN messages.
can_receive_topic	String	Topic created by ros2_socketcan node to receive CAN messages.
radar_send_raw_topic	String	Topic created by the driver to publish raw radar messages.
radar_send_tracked_topic	String	Topic created by the driver to publish tracked radar messages.
send_raw	bool	Publish radar raw messages. T-79 radar can publish both messages at a time.
send_tracked	bool	Publish tracked raw messages. T-79 radar can publish both messages at a time.
radar_id	int	Id of the radar in the CAN Bus, default 0.
frame_id	String	TF frame of radar data, default radar
range_min	double	Minimum range value. <0.5, 80.0>
range_max	double	Maximum range value. <0.5, 80.0>
azimuth_min	double	Minimum(left side) azimuth value. <0, 60>
azimuth_max	double	Maximum(right side) azimuth value. <0, 60>

Existing Solution

Currently, there are no available ROS2 drivers for T-79 and K-77 radars. Aeinstein Radar provides only ROS1 drivers, which can be found here.