🛡️ Robust RPLIDAR ROS 2 Driver (Industrial-Grade)

"Because the official driver shouldn't crash just because you pulled the plug."

This is a heavily refactored, fault-tolerant ROS 2 driver for Slamtec RPLIDAR. Designed with a Lifecycle State Machine and Thread-Safe Architecture, ensuring your robot keeps running even under hardware disconnection or permission failures.

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⚡ Why Use This? (Table of Shame)

Feature	Official Slamtec ROS 2	This Driver (frozenreboot)
Hot-plug Recovery	❌ Crash / Hang	✅ Auto-reconnect via FSM
Permission Denied	❌ Silent Fail / Garbage Data	✅ Explicit Diagnostics
Dynamic Reconfigure	❌ Restart Required	✅ Runtime RPM/Mode Update
Zero-Copy Optimization	❌ N/A	✅ Smart Pointer & Move Semantics
Architecture	❌ Tight SDK Coupling	✅ Interface-based Abstraction

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🧪 Call for Experiments: "Does it survive?"

I need your help to validate this driver on various robots! If you use this driver, please stress-test it (e.g., unplug USB while scanning, change RPM dynamically) and share your results.

📢 How to Submit a Report

Please open an issue with the title [Experiment] Your_Robot_Name and include:

1. Lidar Model: (e.g., A1, A2, S1...)
2. Recovery Log: (Copy paste the terminal output when you unplug/replug)
3. Screenshot: rqt_graph or rviz2

👉 Submit your Experiment Report Here

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Installation

cd ~/ros2_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/frozenreboot/rplidar_ros2_driver.git
cd ..

# Install dependencies
sudo apt update
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

# Build the workspace
colcon build --symlink-install

2. Quick Launch

ros2 launch rplidar_ros2_driver rplidar.launch.py serial_port:=/dev/ttyUSB0

3. Dynamic Reconfigure (Runtime)

You can change the motor speed without killing the node:

ros2 param set /rplidar_node rpm 1000
ros2 param set /rplidar_node scan_mode DenseBoost

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🏗️ Architecture

This driver uses a 3-Layer Design to decouple ROS 2 logic from the vendor SDK.

• Node Layer: Handles Lifecycle & Parameters.

• Wrapper Layer: Handles Threading & Mutex.

• SDK Layer: Raw data fetching.

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👤 Author & Maintainer

• frozenreboot - Initial Refactoring & Architecture Design

• Blog: Tech Log

Based on the original work by RoboPeak & Slamtec.

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🤖 AI-Assisted Development Disclosure

In compliance with the OSRF Policy on the Use of Generative AI in Contributions (Effective May 2025), I explicitly disclose the use of Generative AI tools in the development of this driver.

• Tools Used:
  • Google Gemini / ChatGPT (LLMs): Used for generating boilerplate code, formatting documentation, and initial refactoring suggestions.
• Verification:
  • All AI-generated content has been manually reviewed, tested, and verified by the maintainer.
  • The logic, memory safety (C++17 standards), and ROS 2 lifecycle state transitions have been rigorously checked to ensure system stability.
• Note:
  • Future contributions will strictly follow the Generated-by: tag convention in commit messages as per the OSRF guidelines.