Interfacing Hokuyo Laser in ROS

We can interface different ranges of laser scanners in ROS. One of the popular laser scanners available in the market is Hokuyo Laser scanner (http://www.robotshop.com/en/hokuyo-utm-03lx-laser-scanning-rangefinder.html):

Figure 14: Different series of Hokuyo laser scanners

One of the commonly used Hokuyo laser scanner models is UTM-30LX. This sensor is fast and accurate and is suitable for robotic applications. The device has a USB 2.0 interface for communication, and has up to a 30 meters range with a millimeter resolution. The arc range of the scan is about 270 degrees:

Figure 15: Hokuyo UTM-30LX

There is already a driver available in ROS for interfacing these scanners. One of the interfaces is called urg_node (http://wiki.ros.org/urg_node).

We can install this package by using the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-urg-node

When the device connects to the Ubuntu system, it will create a device called ttyACMx. Check the device name by entering...