ROS Offline Google Maps for MapViz

MapViz (Tile_Map plugin) <-- MapProxy (docker container) <-- Google Maps Satellite

This will walk you through using MapProxy in a docker container to proxy Google Maps satellite view into a WMTS tile service so that it can be viewed by ROS's MapViz Tile Map plugin. Support for offline maps after loading once, maps stay cached. For outdoor robotics and vehicles.

tldr:

$ sudo docker run -p 8080:8080 -d -t -v ~/mapproxy:/mapproxy danielsnider/mapproxy
Then put this URL into the MapViz option "Custom WMTS Source..." http://localhost:8080/wmts/gm_layer/gm_grid/{level}/{x}/{y}.png

Result:

MapViz documentation: http://wiki.ros.org/mapviz

Dependencies

• Docker
• ROS
• MapViz and with following plugins:

sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-mapviz ros-kinetic-mapviz-plugins ros-kinetic-tile-map

Setup

1. Create MapProxy server

1.1. Create the MapProxy configuration folder. The cached map tiles will be written to ~/mapproxy/cache_data.

mkdir ~/mapproxy

1.2 (Optionally) add your own mapproxy.yaml configuration file to override the default of proxying Google Maps satellite view over WMTS protocol.

cp mapproxy.yaml ~/mapproxy/mapproxy.yaml

1.3. Start the MapProxy server with ~/mapproxy as a shared volume.

sudo docker run -p 8080:8080 -d -t -v ~/mapproxy:/mapproxy danielsnider/mapproxy

1.4. Confirm MapProxy is working by browsing to http://127.0.0.1:8080/demo/. You will see the MapProxy logo and if you click on "Image-format png" you will get an interactive map in your browser.

You can also see the first map tile by browsing to http://localhost:8080/wmts/gm_layer/gm_grid/0/0/0.png.

2. Setup MapViz

2.1. Open MapViz using ROS

roslaunch mapviz mapviz.launch

2.2. Click the "Add" button.

2.3. Choose to add a new map_tile display component.

2.4. In the "Source" dropdown select "Custom WMTS Source...".

2.5. In the "Base URL:" field enter the following:

http://localhost:8080/wmts/gm_layer/gm_grid/{level}/{x}/{y}.png

2.6. In the "Max Zoom:" field enter 19

2.7. Click "Save..."

Congrats! You should now see Google Maps load in MapViz.

FAQ

Offline Support?

Any maps that you load will be cached to ~/mapproxy/cache_data and will be available offline.

Where are MapProxy's cached files?

~/mapproxy/cache_data

How to set a default MapViz position?

$ vim ~/.mapviz_config 
# edit the following
offset_x: 1181506
offset_y: -992564.2

OR using ROS parameters:

$ roscd mapviz
$ vim launch/mapviz.launch
<launch>
    <node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="swri_transform" args="0 0 0 0 0 0 /map /check 100"  />
    <node pkg="swri_transform_util" type="initialize_origin.py" name="initialize_origin" >
        <param name="local_xy_frame" value="/map"/>
        <param name="local_xy_origin" value="swri"/>
        <rosparam param="local_xy_origins">
            [{ name: swri,
             latitude: 37.9879772, <!-- change this -->
             longitude: 23.9078602, <!-- change this -->
             altitude: 129.69,
             heading: 0.0}]
        </rosparam>
    </node>
    <node pkg="mapviz" type="mapviz" name="mapviz"/>
</launch>

How to publish GPS coordinates over ROS?

rostopic pub /novatel/fix sensor_msgs/NavSatFix "{latitude: 38.406222, longitude: -110.792027}"

Note for corporate users

In 2013 there was some discussion about Google's Terms & Conditions stating that you are only allowed to access the tiles through Google's API (ie. not MapProxy).

Project Motivation

Built for competing in the University Rover Competition by Ryerson University's http://teamr3.ca/ robot club.