ROS Programming: Building Powerful Robots

Different point cloud types

As described earlier, pcl::PointCloud contains a field that serves as a container for the points; this field is of the PointT type, which is the template parameter of the pcl::PointCloud class and defines the type of point the cloud is meant to store. PCL defines many types of points, but a few of the most commonly used ones are the following:

• pcl::PointXYZ: This is the simplest type of point and probably one of the most used; it stores only 3D XYZ information.
• pcl::PointXYZI: This type of point is very similar to the previous one, but it also includes a field for the intensity of the point. Intensity can be useful when obtaining points based on a certain level of return from a sensor. There are two other standard ...