OusterSDK + Ouster CLI 2024 Q1 Release

20240425 / Python Ouster SDK v0.11.0

Important notes

• Dropped support for python3.7
• Dropped support macOS 10.15
• This will be the last release that supports Ubuntu 18.04.
• Moved all library level modules under ouster.sdk, this includes ouster.client, ouster.pcap
ouster.osf. So the new access name will be ouster.sdk.client, ouster.sdk.pcap and so on
• [BREAKING] many of the ouster-cli commands and arguments have changed (see below.)
• [BREAKING] moved configure_sensor method to ouster.sdk.sensor.util module
• [BREAKING] removed the pcap_to_osf method.

examples

• Added a new async_client_example.cpp C++ example.

Python SDK

• Add support for python 3.12, including wheels on pypi
• Updated VCPKG libraries to 2023.10.19
• New ScanSource API:
  • Added new MultiScanSource that supports streaming and manipulating LidarScan frames
    from multiple concurrent LidarScan sources
    • For non-live sources the MultiScanSource have the option to choose LidarScan(s) by index
      or choose a subset of scans using slicing operation
    • The MultiScanSource interface has the ability to fallback to ScanSource using the
      single_source(sensor_idx), ScanSource interface yield a single LidarScan on iteration
      rather than a List
    • The ScanSource interface obtained via single_source method supports same indexing and
      and slicing operations as the MultiScanSource
  • Added a generic open_source that accepts sensor urls, or a path to a pcap recording
    or an osf file
  • Add explicit flag index to index unindexed osf files, if flag is set to True the osf file
    will be indexed and the index will be saved to the file on first attempt
  • Display a progress bar during index of pcap file or osf (if unindexed)
• Improved the robustness of the resolve_metadata method used to
  automatically identify the sensor metadata associated with a PCAP source.
• [bugfix] SimpleViz complains about missing fields
• [bugfix] Gracefully handle failed sensor connection attempts with proper error reporting
• [bugfix] Fix assertion error when using viz stepping on a live sensor
• [bugfix] Scope MultiLidarViz imports to viz commands
• [bugfix] LidarScan yielded with improper header/status
• [bugfix] OSF ScanSource fields property doesn't report the actual fields
• Removed ouster.sdkx, the open_source command is now part of ouster.sdk module
• The FLAGS field is always added to the list fields of any source type by default. In case of a
  dual return lidar profile then a second FLAGS2 will also be added.

mapping

• Updated SLAM API and examples.
• Added real time frame dropping capability to SLAM API.
• The ouster-mapping package now uses point-cloud-utils instead of open3d.
• improved per-column pose accuracy, which is now based on the actual column timestamps

ouster-cli

• Many commands can now be chained together, e.g. ouster-cli source <src> slam viz.
• New save command can output the result in a variety of formats.
• Added --ts option for specifying the timestamps to use when saving an OSF
  file. Host packet receive time is the default, but not all scan sources have
  this info. Lidar packet timestamps can be used as an alternative.
• Changed the output format of ouster-cli discover to include more information.
• Added JSON format output option to ouster-cli discover.
• Added a flag to output sensor user data to ouster-cli discover.
• Update the minimum required version of zeroconf.
• Removed python-magic package from required dependencies.
• Made the output of ouster-cli source <osf> info much more
  user-friendly. (ouster-cli source <osf> dump gives old output.)
• [breaking] changed the argument format of the slice command.
• [breaking] removed the --legacy and --non-legacy flags.
• [breaking] removed the ouster-cli mapping, ouster-cli osf,
  ouster-cli pcap, and ouster-cli sensor commands.
• [bugfix] return a nonzero exit code on error.
• [bugfix] fix an error that occurred when setting the IMU port using the
  -i option.

ouster_client

• Added a new buffered UDP source implementation BufferedUDPSource.
• The method version_of_string is marked as deprecated, use version_from_string
  instead.
• Added a new method firmware_version_from_metadata which works across firmwares.
• Added support for return order configuration parameter.
• Added support for gyro and accelerometer FSR configuration parameters.
• [bugfix] mtp_init_client throws a bad optional access.
• [bugfix] properly handle 32-bit frame IDs from the
  FUSA_RNG15_RFL8_NIR8_DUAL sensor UDP profile.

ouster_osf

• [breaking] Greatly simplified OSF writer API with examples.
• [breaking] removed the to_native and from_native methods.
• Updated Doxygen API documentation for OSF C++ API.
• Removed support for the deprecated "standard" OSF file format. (The streaming
  OSF format is still supported.)
• Added osf_file_modify_metadata that allows updating the sensor info
  associated with each lidar stream in an OSF file.
• Warn the user if reading an empty or improperly indexed file.

ouster_viz

• Added scaled palettes for calibrated reflectivity.
• Distance rings can now be hidden by setting their thickness to zero.
• [bugfix] Fix some rendering issues with the distance rings.
• [bugfix] Fix potential flickering in Viz

Known issues

• ouster-cli discover may not provide info for sensors using IPv6 link-local
  networks on Python 3.8 or with older versions of zeroconf.
• ouster-cli when combining slice command with viz the program will
  exit once iterate over the selected range of scans even when
  the --on-eof option is set to loop.
  • workaround: to have viz loop over the selected range, first perform a
    slice with save, then playback the generated file.

Contributors

@akatumalla-ouster, Alekhya Katumalla
@chrisbayruns, Chris Bayruns
@yhao10, Hao Yuan
@kairenw, Kai Wong
@kkaly, Karthik Kalyanaraman
@matt-attack, Matthew Bries
@mtswisher, Michael Swisher
@bexcite, Pavlo Bashmakov
@celentes, Tim Talashok
@twslankard, Tom Slankard
@Samahu, Ussama Naal

Acknowledgements

The Ouster SDK team is a small team, and we couldn't do what we do without dozens of tools and libraries produced by the open source community! We'd like to thank the folks contributing to libtins, kiss-icp, zeroconf, numpy, scipy, jsoncpp, eigen3, zlib, libpng, libcurl, Pillow, and the Pallets Project. Ouster SDK is also proudly developed on the Linux kernel with GNU tools. If your open source contribution is not mentioned here and you believe you should be acknowledged, please contact @twslankard, who will try to keep this list up to date.

Public domain photo by Alan Kyker