Hector SLAM in ROS with RPLidar

Question

Trying to set up Hector SLAM with the RPLidar A2. I downloaded both rplidar_ros-master and hector_slam-catkin; extracted them into my catkin_ws/src folder and ran catkin_make. Then I edited the mapping_default.launch file and changed the next to last line:

<node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="base_to_laser_broadcaster"
 args="0 0 0 0 0 0 base_link laser 100" />

Then, after running the roslaunch command on rplidar.launch and on tutorial.launch RVIZ starts but fails to generate a map and gives the warning:

No tf data. Actual error: Fixed Frame [map] does not exist

Do I need to add the 'map' Fixed Frame to the tf node in my mapping_default.launch file?

Answer 1

Could you please add the entire launch script? Looks like some sort of mismatch. First thing I'd check is that the frame name in the line

<param name="base_frame" value="/base_frame"/>

needs to match the frame name in the line

<node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="base_to_laser_broadcaster" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 base_frame laser 100" />

Unless you've manually modified your launch script to read base frame as base link, your static transform should also say base frame. As to your last question, /map is already predefined in mapping_default.launch: you shouldn't have to add it again.