fast_livox_ros_driver

A lightweight, high-performance ROS 2 driver for Livox LiDAR sensors.

This package exposes Livox pointcloud and IMU data as standard sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2 and sensor_msgs/msg/Imu messages. It is designed for efficiency and low-latency use in production and research.

CPU usage (before/after)

The following numbers are measured in our internal benchmarks and are provided as a reference for expected CPU usage improvements.

Platform	CPU usage (livox_ros_driver2)	CPU usage (fast_livox_ros_driver)
RK3588	35%	15%
Intel i7-11800H	14%	3%

Features

• Publishes pointclouds (sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2).
• Publishes IMU messages (sensor_msgs/msg/Imu) when available.
• Configurable frame, topics, QoS and SDK configuration file.

Supported ROS 2 Distros and Platforms

This package targets ROS 2 (Foxy/Iron/Humble/Rolling and newer). It is primarily tested on Linux. Other platforms (Windows/macOS) are not tested.

ROS 2 distro	Build & test
humble
iron
jazzy
kilted
rolling

Building from source

1. Build and install Livox-SDK2. Please follow the guidance of installation in the Livox-SDK2/README.md.

git clone https://github.com/Livox-SDK/Livox-SDK2.git
cd ./Livox-SDK2/
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. && make -j
sudo make install

2. Clone the repository into your workspace src/:

cd /path/to/colcon_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/zz990099/fast_livox_ros_driver.git fast_livox_ros_driver

3. Build with colcon:

colcon build --packages-select fast_livox_ros_driver
source install/setup.bash

Configuration & Parameters

The node exposes several parameters to configure networking, topics and QoS.

• frame_id (string): TF frame used for published messages.
• lidar_ip (string): IP address of the Livox device.
• config_file_path (string): Path to a Livox SDK configuration file.
• pointcloud_topic (string): Topic name for pointcloud output (default: /livox/lidar).
• imu_topic (string): Topic name for IMU output (default: /livox/imu).
• pointcloud_qos_depth (int): QoS history depth for pointcloud publisher.
• imu_qos_depth (int): QoS history depth for imu publisher.

See the packaged config directory and launch files for example parameter files.

Running

Run the node directly after sourcing your workspace:

ros2 run fast_livox_ros_driver fast_livox_ros_driver_node

Or use a params file:

ros2 run fast_livox_ros_driver fast_livox_ros_driver_node --ros-args --params-file /path/to/params.yaml

Use the packaged launch file to start the node with example params and topic remapping:

ros2 launch fast_livox_ros_driver driver.launch.py

To run multiple instances, remap the namespace for each instance.

Testing

Unit and integration tests (if present) can be run with colcon:

colcon build --packages-select fast_livox_ros_driver --cmake-args -DBUILD_TESTING=ON
colcon test --packages-select fast_livox_ros_driver

License

This project is released under the Apache-2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for full terms.