Launch virtual gauges for ROS topics.

Installation

Install the debian:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-gauges

Or, install from source to get the most current version:

$ mkdir -p ~/Desktop/catkin_ws/src
$ cd ~/Desktop/catkin_ws/src
$ catkin_init_workspace

Clone the package

$ git clone https://github.com/UTNuclearRoboticsPublic/gauges.git
$ cd ..

Build the package

$ catkin_make

Source the new files

$ source devel/setup.bash

(You may have to do this every time you open a new terminal window, or add this line to your bashrc: source ~/Desktop/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash)

Launch

You can easily open a virtual gauge within the rqt GUI environment. Launch the main rqt window:

$ rqt --force-discover

(The optional argument here ensures that a new plugin is found.) In the menu, navigate to Plugins-->Visualization-->Gauges to add the gauge plugin. It will launch with some default parameters on the ROS parameter server. They can be adjusted from C++, Python, or the command line. See http://wiki.ros.org/Parameter%20Server. These parameters are numbered so you can launch several gauges with unique parameters. They are:

• "gauge_nameX" -- The name displayed below gauge X.
• "minimumX" -- The minimum value shown on gauge X.
• "maximumX" -- The maximum value shown on gauge X.
• "danger_thresholdX" -- Show a color band, with red beginning at this value.
• "topicX" -- The name of the topic that controls needle X.
• "pixel_sizeX" -- The width and height of gaugeX.

This example launches two gauges which listen to different topics (pitch and yaw):

$ rosparam set /rqt_gauges/topic1 /pitch
$ rosparam set /rqt_gauges/gauge_name1 Pitch
$ rosparam set /rqt_gauges/topic2 /yaw
$ rosparam set /rqt_gauges/gauge_name2 Yaw
$ rostopic pub -r 1 /pitch std_msgs/Float64 13
$ rostopic pub -r 1 /yaw std_msgs/Float64 57
$ rqt
Then select two Gauges from the drop-down menu.

Tips and Tricks

The folder 'scripts/rqt_gauges' contains a short Python script that will launch two rqt gauges and publish data for them. This is an example of automating the gauge creation process.

To run it,

$ rosrun rqt_gauges gauge_script.py

Known Issues

The first gauge to launch sometimes fails to subscribe or has graphics glitches. A workaround is to simply close the first gauge and re-launch a new one.