Collecting a raw Laser/Stereo checkerboard bags

When collecting raw stereo/laser checkerboard data, you need to record the following topics in a bagfile

rosrecord mechanism_state laser_tilt_controller/laser_scanner_signal tilt_scan stereo/raw_stereo tf_message

I just made this list up right now, so I hope I didn't forget anything.

Collecting a processed Laser/Stereo checkerboard bags

For running the stereo/laser calibration (the corner matching version), we need a bag file with corresponding checkerboard corners between the stereocamera and the tilting laser. This is still a very clunky process, but hopefully will get streamlined soon.

You can collect this data with the following commands:

First, rosmake various things (I'm assumming that you've already made pr2_alpha).

rosmake kinematic_calibration stereo_checkerboard_detector laser_cb_processing dense_laser_assembler

On the robot run the following launch file.
Hack #1: I'm launching the stereocam with some specific settings. Thus, if you should comment out the stereocam from your original launch file.
Hack #2: At the top of my launch file (kinematic_calibration/demo/grab_cb_stereo_laser_robot.launch), I'm including a machines file. Make sure that this matches the robot that you are running on.

roscd kinematic_calibration/demo/
roslaunch grab_cb_stereo_laser_robot.launch

By now, you should see the tilt laser moving, and you should also see the LED on the stereocam flashing. If not, then you have a problem.

Next, bring up the capture application in a separate terminal on the robot:

rosrun kinematic_calibration laser_head_grabber

On your local machine, bring up the image viewers for the captured data.

roscd kinematic_calibration/demo/
roslaunch view_cb_stereo_laser_samples.launch

You should now have 3 image windows (left, right, and laser).

Now, the laser_head_grabber will display each calibration dataset in the image_view windows. It is your job to decide whether you want to record this data or not (by pressing Y/N at the command line in laser_head_grabber). All accepted snapshots are published on the topic /laser_head_grabber/snapshots. You should record this topic in it's own bag, in order to run calibration later.