VeloView

Introduction

VeloView performs real-time visualization and processing of live captured 3D LiDAR data from Velodyne's HDL sensors (HDL-64E, HDL-32E, VLP-32, VLP-16, Puck, Puck Lite, Puck HiRes). An introduction to features of VeloView is available as a video:

VeloView can playback pre-recorded data stored in .pcap files, and can record live stream as .pcap file. The HDL sensor sweeps an array of lasers (16, 32, or 64) 360° and a vertical field of view of 40°/20° with 5-20Hz and captures about a million points per second (HDL-32E: ~700,000pt/sec; HDL-64E: ~1.3Million pt/sec). VeloView provides tools to display, select and measure information about the points captured from the sensor. VeloView displays the distance measurements from the Lidar as point cloud data and supports custom color maps of multiple variables such as intensity-of-return, time, distance, azimuth, dual return type, and laser id. The data can be exported as XYZ data in CSV format or screenshots of the currently displayed point cloud can be exported with the touch of a button.

Features

• Configurable listening ports (new in 3.5)
• Forward data received toward another port or/and ip address (new in 3.5)
• Show the Rotation Per Minute of the current frame (new in 3.5)
• Tool to select the dual returns of a selection of points (new in 3.5)
• Cropping tool in Spherical and Box mode (new in 3.5)
• Support for HDL-64 dual mode & on-the-fly calibration data (new in 3.5)
• Support for VLP-32a, VLP-32b, VLP-32c, Puck Hi-Res and Puck LITE (new in 3.5)
• Base infrastructure for georeferencing from GPS and IMU data (new in 3.5)
• Base infrastructure for performing SLAM-based mapping, with and without GPS/IMU. See example below. This feature not yet fully available. (new in 3.5)
• Advanced options to visualize 0-distance returns, empty frames, intensity correction and raw data (without azimuth adjustment) (new in 3.5)
• User configurable playback speed (new in 3.5)
• Underlying ParaView version is now version 5.1.2, providing many new tools (new in 3.5)
• Input from live sensor stream or recorded .pcap file
• Visualization of LiDAR returns in 3D + time including 3D position and attribute data such as timestamp, azimuth, laser id, etc
• Spreadsheet inspector for LiDAR attributes
• Record to .pcap from sensor
• Export to CSV or VTK formats
• Record and export GPS and IMU data
• Ruler tool
• Visualize path of GPS data
• Show multiple frames of data simultaneously
• Show or hide a subset of lasers

Example video of a final mapping application using the new SLAM infrastructure

Below is some examples of using the built-in infrastructure for performing SLAM-based mapping, directly from an custom VeloView built for one of our customer BoE Systems.

How to Obtain

	Windows		MacOSX	Linux
	64-bits	32-bits	64-bits	64-bits	64-bits
3.5.0	Version 3.5.0 - Windows 64	Version 3.5.0 - Windows 32	Version 3.5.0 - Mac OSX 10.9	3.5.0 - tar.gz	3.5.0 - sh
3.1.1	Version 3.1.1 - Windows 64	Version 3.1.1- Windows 32
2.0	Version 2.0 - Windows 64	Version 2.0 - Windows 32
1.0.8	Version 1.0.8 - Windows 64	Version 1.0.8 - Windows 32

The source code for VeloView is made available under the Apache 2.0 license. To obtain the latest version clone the git repository as shown below:

$ git clone https://github.com/Kitware/VeloView.git

Sample data for VeloView can be obtained from MIDAS in the Velodyne LiDAR collection.

How to use

For “sensor streaming” (live display of sensor data) it is important to change the network settings of the Ethernet adapter connected to the sensor from automatic IP address to manual IP address selection and choose:

• HDL-32E and VLP-16
  • IP address: 192.168.1.70 (70 as example, any number except 201 works)
  • Gateway: 255.255.255.0
• HDL-64E
  • IP address: 192.168.3.70 (70 as example, any number except 43 works)
  • Gateway: 192.168.3.255

In order for sensor streaming to work properly, it is important to disable firewall restrictions for the Ethernet port. Disable the firewall completely for the ethernet device connected to the sensor or explicitly allow data from that Ethernet port of (including both public and private networks).

When opening pre-recorded data or live sensor streaming data one is prompted to choose a calibration file. Please select the shipped file corresponding to your sensor model, or "HDL64 Live Corrections" if you wish to use the calibration sent over-the-network by an HDL64 sensor.

How to build

Detailed instructions for building and packaging are available in developers guide the source code checkout under the Documentation folder.