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rslidar_sdk

  • Software
  • Perception
  • Driver or SDK

An Ubuntu SDK for RoboSense lidars that gives ROS and ROS2 nodes point cloud output, built on the rs_driver core. It is meant for use through ROS/ROS2 rather than direct integration.

Made by RoboSense (Suteng Innovation Technology Co., LTD), China (checked on github.com/RoboSense-LiDAR (opens in a new tab)).

Source on GitHub: github.com/RoboSense-LiDAR/rslidar_sdk (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 8b4b4b7 (opens in a new tab).

Licenses

Code
BSD-2-Clause (opens in a new tab)

Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (BSD-2-Clause) at commit 8b4b4b7 (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.

Commercial use
Yes

What it does

  • Bundles the rs_driver lidar driver core, ROS support and ROS2 support in one package.
  • Supports a long list of RoboSense lidar models, including RS-LiDAR-16, RS-Helios, RS-Ruby and RS-LiDAR-AIRY series.
  • Outputs point clouds in XYZI or XYZIRT formats (x, y, z, intensity, plus ring and timestamp for XYZIRT).
  • Can decode live lidar packets from a connected device or replay recorded PCAP files.
  • Builds with ROS catkin tools or ROS2 colcon and is launched with start launch files.
  • Parameters control behaviour, with separate documents for ordinary and hidden parameters, plus coordinate transformation and rosbag recording.

Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 8b4b4b7.

Getting started

Difficulty
Intermediate
Hardware it needs, as the project states it
Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, 20.04 or 22.04 with a matching ROS (Kinetic, Melodic, Noetic) or ROS2 (Eloquent, Galactic, Humble) desktop install, plus libyaml-cpp-dev and libpcap-dev.

Maintenance

Status
Maintained: a commit in the last 12 months
Newest commit
10 Jul 2026 on main
Latest release
v1.5.20 (10 Jul 2026)

Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.

Links

Robots on Robotheca that use it

No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.

Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.