ROS hydro + OpenNI2 + NiTE2 on Linux Ubuntu 12.04 NiTE fails to initialize

Question

The problem I am facing is that when I try to initialize NiTE it fails with error code 1 (STATUS_ERROR)

nite::NiTE::initialize();

I have a project to design a robot mimicry project. Here are some details:

• I am using a virtual machine to develop on Linux.
• I have tested a connection (Samples) with Assus Xtion Pro Live and it is working.
• I have already build my trackers under Windows, and they are working, all I need to do is attach them to ROS as nodes.
• I have connected OpenNI2 and NiTE2 in the CMakeList.txt as you can see bellow.

I started from doing my own ROS hydro package - Which currently has a simple structure: -catkin pkg .... - src ....... - beginner_pkg ........... - src .............. - talker.cpp .............. - listerner.cpp .... - devel .... - build

My CMakeList.txt for beginner_pkg is as follows:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.3)
project(beginner_tutorials)

## Find catkin and any catkin pack
find_package(catkin REQUIRED COMPONENTS
  roscpp
  rospy
  std_msgs
  genmsg
  tf
)

#set(NITE2_INCLUDE "/home/evo/Desktop/NiTE-Linux-x64-2.2/Include/")
#set(NITE2_REDIST64 "/home/evo/Desktop/NiTE-Linux-x64-2.2/Redist/")

##Find pack for OpenNI2
find_path(OpenNI2_INCLUDEDIR
      NAMES OpenNI.h
      HINTS /usr/include/openni2)
find_library(OpenNI2_LIBRARIES
         NAMES OpenNI2 DummyDevice OniFile PS1090
         HINTS /usr/lib/ /usr/lib/OpenNI2/Drivers
         PATH_SUFFIXES lib)
message (STATUS ${OpenNI2_LIBRARIES})
##Find pack for NiTE2
message(STATUS $ENV{NITE2_INCLUDE})
message(STATUS $ENV{NITE2_REDIST64})
#/home/evo/Desktop/NiTE-Linux-x64-2.2/Include/
find_path (NITE2_INCLUDEDIR
           NAMES NiTE.h
           HINTS "/home/evo/Desktop/NiTE-Linux-x64-2.2/Include/")
##/home/evo/Desktop/NiTE-Linux-x64-2.2/Redist/
find_library (NITE2_LIBRARY
          NAMES NiTE2
          HINTS "/home/evo/Desktop/NiTE-Linux-x64-2.2/Redist/"
          PATH_SUFFIXES lib)


## Declare a catkin package
catkin_package()

## Build talker and listener 

include_directories(include ${catkin_INCLUDE_DIRS})
include_directories(${OpenNI2_INCLUDEDIR})
include_directories(${NITE2_INCLUDEDIR})

add_executable(talker src/talker.cpp)
target_link_libraries(talker ${catkin_LIBRARIES})
target_link_libraries(talker ${OpenNI2_LIBRARIES} ${NITE2_LIBRARY})
add_dependencies(talker beginner_tutorials_generate_messages_cpp)

add_executable(listener src/listener.cpp)
target_link_libraries(listener ${catkin_LIBRARIES})
add_dependencies(listener beginner_tutorials_generate_messages_cpp)

I have left the paths the same as they are in the CMakeList.txt

The Cpp code for the talker is as follows:

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  bool active = true;
  HandTracker hTracker;

  Status status = STATUS_OK;
  status = NiTE::initialize(); 
  // iniciate the ROS communicator
  ros::init(argc, argv, "talker");
  ros::NodeHandle n;
  ros::Publisher chatter_pub = n.advertise<std_msgs::String>("chatter", 1000);
  ros::Rate loop_rate(10);
  // Define the msg
  std_msgs::String msg;
  std::stringstream ss;
  // ros::ok()
  if(!HandleStatus(status)) {
        printf("ERROR: #%d, %s \r\n", status,openni::OpenNI::getExtendedError());
    ss << "NITE NOT INITIALIZED";
        msg.data = ss.str();
    ROS_INFO("%s", msg.data.c_str());
    chatter_pub.publish(msg);
    return 1;
  }else ss<<"NITE initialized";
...

I have tried this solution:

http://ariandy1.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/ros-openni2-nite2/

and ran my beginner_tutorials from the folder where the Machine Learning data is, but it made no difference.

Any suggestions where I may be making a mistake ? Thank you very much in advance.

Answer 1

It turns out my CMakeList.txt was no defined properly and it wasn't finding NiTE2 where it was... and then came the initialization problem mentioned in

http://ariandy1.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/ros-openni2-nite2/

where it couldn't find the Machine Learning files located in the Redist folder.

I used the CMakeList.txt from openni2_tracker located at

https://github.com/ros-drivers/openni2_tracker

and with a few tweaks it worked.