Streaming Mocap Data into ROS by OSC

ROS is an open-source framework for developing robotic applications. It allows you to connect sensors, control systems, visualization tools, and more within a unified architecture.

Motion data captured with MOVIN TRACIN and MOVIN Studio can be streamed in real time or played back from recorded files within a ROS 2 environment. The data can then be retargeted to a robot model, allowing you to visualize its movement in RViz2 or integrate it directly into your robot control pipeline for further development.

Prerequisites#

Before integrating with ROS, please make sure your environment is properly set up as described below.

• ROS 2:
  • Humble (tested)
• Required ROS 2 Packages:
  • robot_state_publisher
  • rvix2
  • xacro
  • tf2_ros
• Required pip Packages:
  • numpy
  • scipy
  • movin-sdk-python (Required for BVH file loading and real-time mode)

1. Download Motion-Player-ROS#

   cd ~/ros2_ws/src
   git clone https://github.com/MOVIN3D/Motion-Player-ROS
   

   • Navigate to the src folder of your ROS 2 workspace and clone the Motion-Player-ROS repository.

2. Install MOVIN SDK Python#

   pip install git+https://github.com/MOVIN3D/MOVIN-SDK-Python.git
   

   • Before proceeding, check that all required packages from the Prerequisites section are installed.
   • The movin-sdk-python package is necessary for BVH file loading and real-time live streaming.
     • For more information about MOVIN-SDK-Python, please refer to the repository link.

3. Build the Package#

   cd ~/ros2_ws
   colcon build --packages-select motion_player
   

   • Move to the root of your workspace and build the motion_player package.

4. Source the Workspace#

   source ~/ros2_ws/install/setup.bash
   

   • After building, source the install/setup.bash file in your terminal session.
     • This step is required for ROS to recognize the motion_player package.

5. Run Real-Time Mode#

   ros2 launch motion_player realtime.launch.py
   

   • Launch real-time mode to receive motion data from MOVIN Studio.
   • In real-time mode, you can:
     • Real-time Retargeting: Retargeting motion data instantly to a robot model
     • Real-time Visualization: Visualize both the mocap skeleton and the retargeted robot motion simultaneously in RViz2

   ros2 launch motion_player realtime.launch.py port:=11235 human_height:=1.80 skeleton_offset_x:=1.5
   

   • You can customize parameters as needed:

   Argument	Default	Description
   port	11235	UDP port to listen for OSC mocap data
   robot_type	unitree_g1	Target robot type (unitree_g1 or unitree_g1_with_hands)
   human_height	1.75	Human height in meters for scaling
   skeleton_offset_x	1.0	X offset to place skeleton beside robot
   urdf_file	(package default)	Path to custom URDF file
   rviz_config	(package default)	Path to custom RViz config file

   You may also run the node directly using the --realtime flag:

   ros2 run motion_player motion_player --realtime --ros-args -p port:=11235 -p human_height:=1.8
   

6. Start OSC Streaming in MOVIN Studio #

   

   • Start OSC streaming in MOVIN Studio.
   • Please check that the port number configured in ROS matches the port number set in MOVIN Studio.