start

Start streaming point clouds from Velodyne LiDAR sensor

Since R2020b

Add-On Required: This feature requires the Lidar Toolbox Support Package for Velodyne LiDAR Sensors add-on.

Syntax

start(lidarobj)

Description

start(lidarobj) starts streaming point clouds from the Velodyne LiDAR^® sensor specified by lidarobj. Before it adds new point clouds, the function deletes all existing point clouds.

Examples

Start Streaming Point Clouds from Velodyne LiDAR

After creating a velodynelidar object, you can start streaming point cloud data from your sensor and add this data to the object buffer. You do not have to start streaming to use the preview or read functions.

Create a velodynelidar object for an HDL-32E sensor.

v = velodynelidar('HDL32E')

v = 

  velodynelidar with properties:

                      Model: 'HDL32E'
                  IPAddress: '127.0.0.1'
                       Port: 2368
    NumPointCloudsAvailable: 0
                    Timeout: 10
                  Streaming: 0
            CalibrationFile: 'C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2019a\toolbox\shared\pointclouds\utilities\velodyneFileReaderConfiguration\HDL32E.xml'

The Streaming property is 0, indicating that the sensor is not yet streaming data to the object buffer.

Start streaming point clouds. Once the start function is called, streaming continues in the background. You can view the Streaming property. The value should be 1, indicating that the sensor has started streaming.

start(v)
v.Streaming

ans =

  logical

   1

View the number of point clouds currently in the buffer. This value increases while point clouds are streaming.

v.NumPointCloudsAvailable

ans =

    17

Stop streaming when you are finished.

stop(v)

The point clouds that are in the buffer when stop is called remain available. They are not deleted until start is called again. Use read to access the available point cloud data.

Input Arguments

lidarobj — Velodyne LiDAR sensor connection

velodynelidar object

Velodyne LiDAR sensor connection created by using velodynelidar, specified as a velodynelidar object.

Version History

Introduced in R2020b