Velodyne VLP-16 Lidar Viewer

Authors: Holoscan Team (NVIDIA), nvMap Team (NVIDIA), nvMap Embedded Team (NVIDIA), Tom Birdsong (NVIDIA), Julien Jomier (NVIDIA), Jiahao Yin (NVIDIA), Marlene Wan (NVIDIA)
Supported platforms: x86_64, aarch64
Language: C++
Last modified: May 13, 2025
Latest version: 1.0
Minimum Holoscan SDK version: 2.0.0
Tested Holoscan SDK versions: 2.0.0
Contribution metric: Level 4 - Experimental

Overview

In this application we demonstrate how to use Holoscan SDK for low-latency lidar processing. We receive lidar packets from a Velodyne VLP-16 lidar sensor, convert packet information to a rolling Cartesian point cloud on GPU, then visualize the results with HoloViz.

Background

"Lidar" (LIght Detection And Ranging) is a technique by which "light", typically of wavelengths in the infrared spectrum, is used to determine the position of reflective surfaces surrounding a sensor. A 3D lidar sensor often employs a stacked vertical array of infrared laser emitters and sources that it spins rapidly. Similar to radar, the strength and timing of reflected lasers can be used to generate a 360-degree 3D point cloud view of the surrounding environment, with each point corresponding to an estimated point of reflection.

For demonstration purposes we selected the Velodyne VLP-16 lidar sensor as our input source. We adapted existing packet processing code from NVIDIA DeepMap SDK into a custom Holoscan operator, VelodyneLidarOp, and connected it with the existing BasicNetworkOp and HoloVizOp operators to provide a complete viewing pipeline. We performed initial benchmarking on an NVIDIA IGX devkit.

Requirements

This application is intended to run on a Holoscan SDK support platform, namely a Linux x64 system or an NVIDIA IGX developer kit.

To run the application you need a live or replayer source to stream Velodyne VLP-16 packet data to the application. That may be either: - A Velodyne VLP-16 lidar sensor. Review the VLP-16 user manual - A VLP-16 .pcap recording file and a packet replayer software. - Visit Kitware's VeloView Velodyne Lidar collection for sample VLP-16 .pcap files. - Visit the third party Wireshark wiki for a curated list of software options for generating traffic from .pcap files.

Running the Application

First, start your lidar stream source. If you are using a VLP-16 lidar sensor, review the VLP-16 user manual for instructions on how to properly set up your network configuration.

Then, build and start the Holoscan lidar viewing application:

./dev_container build_and_run velodyne_lidar_app

Benchmarks

We performed benchmarking on an NVIDIA IGX developer kit with an A4000 GPU. (Note that an A6000 GPU is standard for IGX.) We used the holoscan_flow_benchmarking project to collect and summarize performance. The performance for each component in the Holoscan SDK pipeline is shown in the image below.

Key statistics:

Minimum Latency	1.03 milliseconds
Average Latency	1.12 milliseconds
Maximum Latency	1.34 milliseconds

By comparison, the VLP-16 lidar publishes packets at a rate of approximately 1.33 milliseconds per packet.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How does the application work?

The application flow is as follows:

1. A UDP packet is emitted from the Velodyne VLP-16 lidar sensor and received on port 2368 in the Holoscan BasicNetworkOp operator.
2. The packet payload is forwarded to the Holoscan VelodyneLidarOp operator. The operator decodes the packet according to the Velodyne lidar specification, where the VLP-16 packet defines 384 spherical points from laser firings. The operator converts the spherical points to Cartesian points on the GPU device and adds the resulting cloud to a rolling, accumulated point cloud.
3. The Velodyne operator forwards the rolling point cloud to HoloViz, which renders the GPU point cloud to the screen.

What are some limitations of the application?

This application is intended as a simple demonstration of how a lidar sensor can be integrated for input to Holoscan SDK for low latency processing. It does not propose any novel features. Some limitations compared with more complete lidar solutions are: - No cloud filtering -- all zero-ranged points are kept in the buffer and visualized. - No advanced inference techniques -- the cloud is simply translated and visualized. - No RDMA -- VLP-16 lidar packets are received via the host ethernet interface on the IGX or x86_64 machine and then copied to the GPU device. - Monochrome visual -- HoloViz operator cloud support is currently limited to one color.

Each of these limitations is merely a result of our scope of work, and could be overcome with additional attention.

Why is HoloViz not responding?

In most cases this indicates that the Holoscan application is not receiving UDP packets. There are several reasons that this could be the case: - The VLP-16 lidar sensor is not turned on, or the ethernet cable is disconnected. The sensor typically takes approximately 30 seconds between powering on and transmitting packets. - The VLP-16 lidar sensor network interface is not properly configured to receive packets. You can use a tool such as Wireshark to review live packets on the network interface. Review the VLP-16 user manual for troubleshooting. - The HoloHub application is not properly configured. Review the lidar.yaml configuration and confirm that the port and IP address match the VLP-16 configuration.

Acknowledgements

This operator was developed in part with support from the NVIDIA nvMap team and adapts portions of the NVIDIA DeepMap SDK.