Coding Period - Week 7
We had a discussion at the beginning of the week, the task at hand was to get improve asthetics and also add a camera module to thee front of the Lincoln Mkz car.
The Camera module lag 😔
A camera module is very important to a self-driving car and what’s more important is a latency-free camera module. I started by adding a camera module to the Lincoln Mkz and what resulted was a very good quality codec output but what followed was the latency in frames received. This latency could cause a delay in actions performed by the car and that will take a huge toll on the performance.
One way to decrease this latency is to compress the images and have a specific topic publish the compressed frames, Compressed_image_transport package is one such package which does this job well.
After compressing the camera images the latency issue is solved 😊.
How did I upgrade the Textures?
It’s very important for a simulation model to look realistic, a realistic model is what encourages anyone to code in a simulation mode.
I started by adding and testing out different color and textures to the car model in Fusion 360 and it was a big mistake as I realized fusion 360 does not export colors when exported as urdf.
After a little research I found out that Blender is one such tool where this does not happen, so I applied all the changes I previously made inside blender.
Now the Car is as good as it gets!
Tasks
- Upgrade Lincoln-mkz Car model with better Textures.
- Add a Camera Module to capture the front view of the car.