RoadTest: Xsens Position and Orientation Sensing GNSS/INS Dev Kit
Author: ajayvishaal
Creation date:
Evaluation Type: Development Boards & Tools
Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True
What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: Other IMU kits available in the market, Product names will be updated once analysing the kit performance comlpetely
What were the biggest problems encountered?: The problem that I faced initially was with using the MT Manager and interfacing the sensor with the ROS/ROS2 drivers and getting the raw and fused data.
Detailed Review:
Introduction:
I wanna thank Element14 Community for giving me an oppourtunity to test this cool Xsens Position and Orientation Sensing GNSS/INS Dev Kit. As I'm working on building a industrial level robot and due to the outage of some essential resources required for my robot, I'm giving some basic introduction about my testing process. I also wanna thank Element14 people for understanding my situation and supporting me. I'll add the detailed testing and performance information along with videos once I complete building my robot and deploy the Xsens sensor on the robot.
I've received the Xsens sensor kit pack in a good packaging. I unpacked everything from the box. It had all the things required for the development and testing.
MT Manager:
A quickstart guide for MT manager can be found here. MT manager is not very user friendly, as the ui has various fileds to be configured. It was difficult at first to work with the MT manager. But after reading all the available documentations, I was able to use the application to configure the dev kit properly.
ROS 1:
ROS 1 driver can be found here. Xsens have a good driver support for ROS1 applications. Initially, I faced issues with establishing the communication between the driver and the kit. So, I contacted Xsens technical support for help. They have a good technical support team and the response was pretty quick. I came to know that the Dev kit has to be configured using the MT manager application inorder to get all the expected data using the ROS driver.
ROS 2:
ROS 2 driver can be found here. The ROS2 driver support is provided by Bluspace AI. The details of this driver can be found in the driver Readme page.
Initial Review:
The Xsens Position and Orientation Sensing GNSS/INS Dev Kit is a powerful and versatile tool for measuring and tracking movement in a wide range of applications. Whether you're working on autonomous vehicles, drones, or robotics, this dev kit can provide you with accurate and reliable position and orientation data to help you make informed decisions.
One of the standout features of this dev kit is its use of advanced GNSS and INS sensors to provide precise measurements of position and orientation. This includes GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou satellite systems, as well as a variety of inertial sensors like accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers. Together, these sensors provide a complete picture of your device's movement and orientation, allowing you to track its location, speed, and direction with high accuracy.
In addition to its powerful sensor suite, the Xsens dev kit also comes with a user-friendly software package that allows you to easily configure and customize the device to meet your specific needs. The software includes a range of advanced features like real-time data streaming, data logging, and post-processing tools that can help you extract valuable insights from your data.
Overall, I would highly recommend the Xsens Position and Orientation Sensing GNSS/INS Dev Kit to anyone working in the field of autonomous systems or robotics. Its advanced sensor suite and powerful software make it a versatile and reliable tool for measuring and tracking movement, and its ease of use and flexibility make it an ideal choice for a wide range of applications.
Current Progress:
I'm developing a Industrial robot to deploy this powerful dev kit. The dev kit is awesome as far as I tested integrating with ROS, I'm abe to get all the data from different topics including raw and fused data. I'm facing issues with getting ICs for some circuits that I developed for adding into the robot system. Because of this my review process is getting delayed. I'll be updating my tesing procedure with videos as soon as I complete my build and test the dev kit rigorously with my robot.
