Convert the KITTI dataset to python!

The perfect afterparty 🎉 for python aficionados 🐍 working with the KITTI dataset 🚙.

• Data as numpy arrays
• Visualization with matplotlib

Sample 2011_09_26_drive_0005 from the KITTI dataset.
Top: Camera data from the sample.
Bottom: Associated point cloud, car pose and trajectory in numpy & matplotlib (3D left and 2D right)

Create a new python environment with the associated requirements:

conda create --name kitti python=3.8.10
conda activate kitti
pip install -r requirements.txt

To ensure that Python paths are properly defined, update the ~/.bashrc by adding the following lines

export AFTERKITTI_PATH=/path_to_afterKITTI
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/$AFTERKITTI_PATH

You can convert any of the raw data provided in KITTI by following this procedure:

1. Convert raw data to ROS by using kitti2bag. When doing so, follow the instructions in this issue and move it to data/rosbags folder.

   You can visualize the generated rosbags with the following commands (in separate terminals):

   rosbag play -l data/rosbags/kitti_2011_09_26_drive_0005_synced.bag
   
   rosrun rviz rviz -d rviz_view.rviz

2. Convert ROS to Python by running:

   python afterkitti/ros2python.py

   This will generate a pickle file in the data/pickles folder.

3. Import and visualize the dataset as follows:

      python afterkitti/load_and_visualize.py