cubs2_rviz

Custom RViz2 panel plugins for Cubs2 aircraft simulation and control.

Plugins

Video Panel

Low-latency GStreamer video streaming panel for drone camera visualization.

Features:

  • Direct GStreamer rendering (no ROS 2 image topic overhead)

  • Multiple input sources: USB cameras, RTSP, UDP (H.264/MJPEG), test patterns

  • Predefined source templates for common use cases

  • Custom GStreamer pipeline support

  • Real-time video display with automatic aspect ratio

Usage:

  1. In RViz: Panels → Add New Panel → cubs2::VideoPanel

  2. Select a predefined source or enter custom GStreamer URI

  3. Click “Connect”

Predefined Sources:

  • Test Pattern: SMPTE color bars for testing

  • USB Camera: V4L2 camera on /dev/video0

  • RTSP Stream: Network camera stream

  • UDP Stream (H.264): H.264 encoded UDP on port 5600

  • UDP Stream (MJPEG): MJPEG encoded UDP on port 5600

Custom Pipeline Examples:

# Different USB camera device
v4l2src device=/dev/video1 ! video/x-raw,width=1280,height=720,framerate=30/1

# RTSP with authentication
rtspsrc location=rtsp://username:password@192.168.1.100:8554/video latency=0 ! decodebin

# Custom UDP port
udpsrc port=5000 ! application/x-rtp,encoding-name=H264 ! rtph264depay ! avdec_h264

# File playback
filesrc location=/path/to/video.mp4 ! decodebin

Drone Camera Setup:

On companion computer (Raspberry Pi):

# Stream USB camera via UDP H.264
gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! \
  video/x-raw,width=640,height=480,framerate=30/1 ! \
  x264enc tune=zerolatency bitrate=2000 speed-preset=superfast ! \
  rtph264pay ! udpsink host=<ground-station-ip> port=5600

In RViz Video Panel, select “UDP Stream (H.264)” and click “Connect”.

Required Dependencies:

sudo apt-get install \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-base \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \
  gstreamer1.0-libav

Troubleshooting:

  • Check camera: ls /dev/video*

  • Test pipeline: gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! autovideosink

  • View RViz terminal for detailed GStreamer errors

  • For low latency: use UDP over RTSP, reduce resolution/framerate for limited bandwidth

Performance Tips:

  • Start with 640x480 @ 30fps

  • Use H.264 for network streams

  • Set tune=zerolatency on encoder

  • Prefer wired Ethernet for reliability

Joy Panel

Virtual joystick for manual aircraft control.

Features:

  • 2D joystick widget (aileron/elevator)

  • Throttle and rudder sliders

  • Trim controls for aileron and elevator

  • Enable/disable checkbox to prevent conflicts with gamepad

  • Spring-back to center when released

Topics:

  • Publishes: /control (cubs2_msgs/AircraftControl)

  • Subscribes: /control (to display external control when disabled)

Sim Panel

Simulation control and configuration.

Features:

  • Reset simulation button

  • Pause/resume checkbox

  • Simulation speed selector (0.25x to 100x)

  • Time step selector (0.001s to 0.1s)

  • Camera position publishing for advanced visualization

Topics:

  • Publishes: /reset, /pause, /set_speed, /set_dt

  • Subscribes: /sat/paused (to sync pause state)

HUD Panel

Heads-up display for flight telemetry.

Features:

  • Artificial horizon (pitch/roll)

  • Roll indicator (arc with angle markers)

  • Altitude display

  • Airspeed display

  • Real-time attitude visualization

Topics:

  • Subscribes: /sportcub/pose, /sportcub/velocity

Usage

Load Panels in RViz

  1. Launch RViz: ros2 launch cubs2_bringup viz.xml

  2. In RViz menu: Panels → Add New Panel

  3. Select from:

    • cubs2::VideoPanel

    • cubs2/JoyPanel

    • cubs2/SimPanel

    • cubs2/HUDPanel

Pre-configured RViz Config

Panels are automatically loaded with:

ros2 launch cubs2_bringup viz.xml

Development

Building

colcon build --packages-select cubs2_rviz

Plugin Architecture

Plugins use the RViz2 rviz_common::Panel API with Qt5 widgets.

Key Components:

  • include/cubs2_rviz/*.hpp - Header files

  • src/rviz/*.cpp - Implementation

  • plugin_description.xml - Plugin registration

  • config/cubs2.rviz - Pre-configured layout

Adding a New Panel

  1. Create header in include/cubs2_rviz/my_panel.hpp:

#include <rviz_common/panel.hpp>

namespace cubs2 {
class MyPanel : public rviz_common::Panel {
  Q_OBJECT
public:
  MyPanel(QWidget* parent = nullptr);
};
}

  1. Implement in src/rviz/my_panel.cpp

  2. Export with PLUGINLIB_EXPORT_CLASS(cubs2::MyPanel, rviz_common::Panel)

  3. Register in plugin_description.xml

Qt Integration

Panels use Qt5 for GUI:

  • Widgets: QSlider, QPushButton, QCheckBox, QLabel

  • Layouts: QVBoxLayout, QHBoxLayout

  • Custom painting: QPainter for HUD graphics

  • Timers: QTimer for periodic updates

Dependencies

ROS2 Packages:

  • rclcpp

  • rviz_common

  • pluginlib

Cubs2 Packages:

  • cubs2_msgs

  • cubs2_description

  • racecourse_description

System:

  • Qt5 (qtbase5-dev)

  • GStreamer 1.0 (libgstreamer1.0-dev, libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev)

  • geometry_msgs

  • std_msgs

  • sensor_msgs

Testing

# Lint and style checks
colcon test --packages-select cubs2_rviz

# Test video stream (for Video Panel testing)
./scripts/test_video_stream.sh --pattern ball