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Analysis

FAR-LIO integrates with the standard ROS 2 tooling for inspecting, plotting and debugging its output.

Plotting with PlotJuggler

PlotJuggler is the recommended tool for inspecting FAR-LIO's numeric output. It natively decodes the tsl debug messages that FAR-LIO uses extensively, and it also provides a convenient interface for plotting and illustrating regular ROS 2 messages.

The debug messages expose all details about the running system, including:

  • the inputs actually used (LiDAR, IMU, …),
  • measurement and processing delays,
  • the computation time of each individual module,
  • and much more.

This makes it straightforward to profile the pipeline, spot bottlenecks, and verify that inputs arrive as expected.

Visualizing odometry and the local submap

To inspect the odometry and mapping geometrically, enable debug_mode in the configuration (pipeline.debug_mode: true in config/far-lio.yml — see Configuration). With it enabled, LidarOdometry publishes:

  • the point cloud used for registration, and
  • the current local submap.

Both can be displayed in RViz2, for example to check alignment quality and map consistency.

Warning

Publishing the whole local submap is expensive. Enabling debug_mode can noticeably increase computation times, so use it for analysis rather than during performance-critical runs.