General Usage

This page covers the core CLI tools and ROS2 nodes for parsing, visualizing, and publishing map data.

ROS2 requirement

create_mapdata and osm_cloud require a sourced ROS2 workspace. The MapData class, path planning modules, and the interactive viewer work standalone.

What gets downloaded

When create_mapdata (or MapData.run_all()) is called, three concurrent Overpass API queries are sent:

Query	What it fetches
Ways	All OSM ways inside the bounding box: roads, footways, paths, buildings, fences, water bodies, and any other area or line feature
Relations	Multipolygon relations that reference the above ways (e.g. building complexes, large parks)
Nodes	Standalone point features used as obstacles (e.g. bollards, barriers, gates)

The downloaded data is then filtered and classified into roads_list, footways_list, and barriers_list according to the tag CSV files in parameters/. Ways whose tags do not match any configured category are discarded.

Bounding box and margins

The query bounding box is the convex hull of the GPX waypoints, expanded outward by osm_margin + reserve_margin on all sides. With the defaults (osm_margin = 100 m, reserve_margin = 50 m) that is 150 m beyond the outermost waypoint.

Margin	Default	Purpose
`osm_margin`	100 m	Ensures that features near the route boundary — particularly barriers and building footprints — are fully captured, even when their geometry extends a few metres past the last waypoint.
`reserve_margin`	50 m	Clips the internal UTM bounding box (`min_x/max_x/min_y/max_y`) used by the path planners. The extra buffer prevents the planning grid from touching the download boundary, where data may be incomplete.

Both values are configurable in config/planner_defaults.yaml. Increase osm_margin for routes near dense urban areas with large building footprints, or decrease it to reduce query time and file size for simple open-terrain routes.

Inspecting a .mapdata file

map_data_info prints statistics about a .mapdata file — feature counts, total footway distance, covered area, UTM zone, and any stored annotations.

map_data_info coords.mapdata

Example output:

========================================
MAP DATA STATISTICS: coords.mapdata
========================================
Source:      File: coords.gpx
UTM Zone:    33U
Bounds X:    [458200.0, 458900.0]
Bounds Y:    [5550100.0, 5550700.0]
Total Area:  420,000 m²
----------------------------------------
Roads:       12
Footways:    47
Barriers:    83
Total Footway Distance: 4823.6 m
Annotations: 3 (manual edits)
========================================

map_data_info is available after installing the package (standalone pip install -e . or colcon build).

Parsing and creating files

create_mapdata creates a .mapdata file from a .gpx or .yaml waypoint file, or re-parses an existing .mapdata with the current tag configuration.

Flag	Description
`-d`	Download fresh OSM data from the input file's bounds and parse it
`-f <filename>`	`.gpx` or `.yaml` waypoint file to parse (with `-d`), or `.mapdata` file to re-parse (without `-d`)

YAML waypoint format

Besides .gpx files, create_mapdata and MapData also accept a simple YAML format:

waypoints:
  - latitude: 50.1234
    longitude: 14.5678
    elevation: 200.0   # optional, defaults to 0
  - latitude: 50.1240
    longitude: 14.5690

Save the file with a .yaml extension and use it wherever a .gpx file is accepted.

Download and parse OSM data for a GPX file:

ros2 run map_data create_mapdata -d -f coords.gpx

This creates coords.mapdata in the package data directory.

Re-parse an existing .mapdata file (e.g. after editing tag CSVs):

ros2 run map_data create_mapdata -f coords.mapdata

Publishing a point cloud of footways and intersections

osm_cloud is a ROS2 node that publishes a sensor_msgs/PointCloud2 on the grid topic (cost-aware footway grid) and optionally publishes intersections as a geometry_msgs/PoseArray and visualization_msgs/MarkerArray.

ROS2 parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
`utm_frame`	`"utm"`	TF frame name for UTM coordinates
`local_frame`	`"local_utm"`	TF frame name for the local robot frame
`utm_to_local`	`None`	4×4 transform matrix; looked up from TF if not set
`mapdata_file`	`None`	Absolute path to a `.mapdata` file
`gpx_file`	`None`	Absolute path to a `.gpx` file (used if no `.mapdata`)
`save_mapdata`	`false`	Save generated mapdata when loading from a `.gpx`
`max_path_dist`	`1.0`	Max distance (m) at which a grid point receives a cost
`neighbor_cost`	`"linear"`	Cost falloff for cells near ways: `"linear"` = proportional to distance, `"quadratic"` = distance squared, `"zero"` = constant regardless of distance
`grid_res`	`0.25`	Grid point spacing (m)
`grid_max`	`[0.0, 0.0]`	Upper bounds of the local-frame grid (m). `[0, 0]` triggers auto-calc.
`grid_min`	`[0.0, 0.0]`	Lower bounds of the local-frame grid (m). `[0, 0]` triggers auto-calc.
`auto_utm`	`false`	Auto-calculate UTM-to-local transform from map center
`publish_intersections`	`true`	Whether to publish footway intersections

Launching

The recommended way to run the node is via the provided launch file, which also sets up the required static transforms and enables intersection publishing by default:

ros2 launch map_data osm_cloud.launch.py \
    mapdata_file:=/path/to/coords.mapdata \
    grid_topic:=osm_cloud

Argument	Default	Description
`mapdata_path`	package share/data	Directory containing the map file
`mapdata_file`	`stromovka.mapdata`	Map data filename
`gpx_file`	`stromovka.gpx`	GPX fallback filename
`grid_topic`	`osm_grid`	Topic name for the published point cloud
`publish_static_tf`	`false`	Whether to publish static transforms for utm/map