Ouster LiDAR Plugin

The Ouster plugin provides driver support for Ouster OS-1 series LiDAR sensors, enabling point cloud and IMU data acquisition.

Overview

The Ouster plugin connects to Ouster LiDAR sensors over Ethernet, streaming point cloud and IMU data at configurable rates. It supports various resolution and scan rate modes.

Supported Sensors

Ouster OS-1-32 (32 scan lines)

Configuration

Configuration File

Location: raisin_ouster_plugin/config/ouster32.yaml

sensor_hostname: "169.254.16.143"
lidar_mode: "1024x10"
lidar_port: 0
imu_port: 0
sensor_frame: "os_sensor"
lidar_frame: "os_lidar"
imu_frame: "os_imu"
publish_rate: 10.0

Parameter Reference

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
sensor_hostname	string	“169.254.16.143”	IP address of the Ouster sensor
lidar_mode	string	“1024x10”	Resolution and scan rate
lidar_port	int	0	LiDAR data port (0 = auto-detect)
imu_port	int	0	IMU data port (0 = auto-detect)
sensor_frame	string	“os_sensor”	TF frame ID for sensor
lidar_frame	string	“os_lidar”	TF frame ID for LiDAR
imu_frame	string	“os_imu”	TF frame ID for IMU
publish_rate	double	10.0	Output publishing rate (Hz)

LiDAR Modes

The lidar_mode parameter controls resolution and scan rate:

Mode	Resolution	Scan Rate
512x10	512 columns	10 Hz
512x20	512 columns	20 Hz
1024x10	1024 columns	10 Hz
1024x20	1024 columns	20 Hz
2048x10	2048 columns	10 Hz

Message Topics

Publishers

Topic	Type	Description
/ouster/points	sensor_msgs/PointCloud2	Raw LiDAR point cloud
/ouster/imu	sensor_msgs/Imu	IMU measurements

Usage

Network Setup

Connect Ouster sensor to your computer via Ethernet
Configure your network interface to be on the same subnet as the sensor
Default sensor IP is typically 169.254.x.x (link-local)

Loading the Plugin

Add to your params.yaml:

plugin:
  raisin_ouster_plugin:
    rate: 10

Verifying Connection

Check that point clouds are being published using raisin_cli (see Using raisin_cli for details):

# In raisin_cli
list                    # Check available servers and get server_id
con <server_id>         # Connect using server_id from list output
list                    # List all available topics
sub <topic> <time>      # e.g., sub /ouster/points 10