OptiTrack to ROS 2 Pose Streaming

A lightweight ROS 2 interface for streaming OptiTrack Motive rigid-body poses through the NatNet Python client.

This repository contains the PythonSample_ROS2.py script used in my working OptiTrack–ROS 2 setup. The script connects the NatNet rigid-body stream to ROS 2 and publishes the tracked pose as a geometry_msgs/msg/PoseStamped message.

Tested Setup

• Ubuntu
• ROS 2 Humble
• OptiTrack Motive
• NatNet SDK / NatNet Python Client
• NatNet unicast streaming

ROS 2 Output

The publisher outputs:

• Topic: /optitrack/pose
• Message type: geometry_msgs/msg/PoseStamped
• Frame ID: optitrack

Repository Contents

optitrack_ros2_pose/
├── PythonSample_ROS2.py
├── README.md
└── scripts/
    └── run_optitrack.sh

PythonSample_ROS2.py contains the ROS 2 integration used for the working setup.

The official OptiTrack NatNetClient.py is not redistributed in this repository and must be obtained from the OptiTrack NatNet SDK.

Dependencies

Install ROS 2 Humble and obtain the OptiTrack NatNet SDK.

The tested NatNet Python client was located at:

~/ros2_ws/src/natnet_ros2/deps/NatNetSDK/samples/PythonClient/

The NatNet Python client directory must contain the required SDK modules, including:

NatNetClient.py DataDescriptions.py MoCapData.py

Run

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/Marsak24/optitrack_ros2_pose.git
cd optitrack_ros2_pose

By default, the launcher expects NatNetClient.py at:

~/ros2_ws/src/natnet_ros2/deps/NatNetSDK/samples/PythonClient/

Run:

./scripts/run_optitrack.sh

If your NatNet SDK is installed somewhere else:

NATNET_DIR=/path/to/NatNetSDK/samples/PythonClient \
./scripts/run_optitrack.sh

You can also run the publisher manually:

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash

export PYTHONPATH=/path/to/NatNetSDK/samples/PythonClient:$PYTHONPATH

python3 PythonSample_ROS2.py

NatNet Configuration

The tested setup used unicast streaming.

When the program starts, select:

Select 0 for multicast and 1 for unicast: 1

Then provide:

• Client Address: IP address of the Ubuntu computer running ROS 2
• Server Address: IP address of the computer running OptiTrack Motive
• Stream type: d for datastream

The actual IP addresses depend on the local OptiTrack network.

Verify the ROS 2 Stream

List the topic:

ros2 topic list | grep optitrack

Inspect one pose:

ros2 topic echo /optitrack/pose --once

Check the publishing frequency:

ros2 topic hz /optitrack/pose

Notes

This repository contains the ROS 2 integration used to publish OptiTrack rigid-body tracking data.

The OptiTrack NatNet Python client (NatNetClient.py) is an external dependency and is not redistributed here.