This package implements a driver for the Sick S300 Safety laser scanners with an interface for ROS 2 using a lifecycle node. It provides an implementation for both, the old (1.40) and the new (2.10) protocol. Thus, the old Sick S300 Professional CMS as well as the new Sick S300 Expert are supported.

However, it does not cover the full functionality of the protocol:

• It only handles distance measurements properly
• It only handles no or only one configured measurement range field properly
• It does not handle I/O-data or reflector data (though it reads the reflector marker field in the distance measurements)

Keywords: ROS2, laser, driver, sick s300, lifecycle

The sicks300_2 package has been tested under ROS2 Humble on Ubuntu 22.04. This code is mainly based on cob_sick_s300 but ported to ROS2; expect that it changes often and any fitness for a particular purpose is disclaimed.

Here are a few notes about how to best configure the S300:

• Configure the RS422 output to 500kBaud (otherwise, the scanner only provides a lower frequency)
• Configure the scanner to Continuous Data Output
• Send data via one telegram
• Only configure distances, no I/O or reflector data (otherwise, the scanner only provides a lower frequency).
• Configuration of the measurement ranges
  • For protocol 1.40: only configure one measurement range field with the full range (-45° to 225°) with all values.
  • For protocol 2.10: do not configure a measurement range field (otherwise, the scanner only provides a lower frequency).
• If you want to only use certain measurement ranges, do this on the ROS side using e.g. the laser_filters package.

• Robot Operating System (ROS) 2 (middleware for robotics),
• Boost (C++ source libraries)

To build from source, clone the latest version from this repository into your colcon workspace and compile the package using

cd colcon_workspace/src
git clone https://github.com/ajtudela/sicks300_2.git
cd ../
rosdep install -i --from-path src --rosdistro humble -y
colcon build

Run the sicks300_2 node with:

ros2 run sicks300_2 sicks300_2

Optionally, you can launch this node with an angulor bound filter:

ros2 launch sicks300_2 scan_with_filter.launch.py

Driver for the Sick S300 Safety laser scanners.

• scan (sensor_msgs/LaserScan)

  The laserscan data.

• scan/standby (std_msgs/Bool)

  True if the scanner is in standby mode, false otherwise.

• /diagnostics (diagnostic_msgs/DiagnosticArray)

  Diagnostic about the laser scan.

• port (string, default: "/dev/ttyUSB0")

  USB port of the scanner.

• baud (int, default: 500000)

  Baudrate to communicate with the laser scanner.

• scan_id (int, default: 7)

  Identifier of the scanner.

• inverted (bool, default: false)

  Option to invert the direction of the measurements.

• scan_topic (string, default: "scan")

  The topic where the laser scan will be published.

• frame_id (string, default: "base_laser_link")

  The frame of the scanner.

• scan_duration (double, default: 0.025)

  Time between laser scans in seconds.

• scan_cycle_time (double, default: 0.040)

  Cycle time of the scan in seconds. Documentation says S300 scans every 40ms.

• scan_delay (double, default: 0.075)

  Delay between the start of the scan and the first measurement in seconds.

• debug (bool, default: false)

  Option to toggle scanner debugging information.

• communication_timeout (double, default: 0.2)

  Timeout to shutdown the node in seconds.

• fields

  Range configuration of the field. Set 1 by default.