ros2 tf_error ai_generated true

tf2.LookupException: "map" passed to lookupTransform argument target_frame does not exist

ID: ros2/tf-lookup-exception

Also available as: JSON · Markdown
82%Fix Rate
88%Confidence
3Evidence
2023-01-01First Seen

Version Compatibility

VersionStatusIntroducedDeprecatedNotes
2 active — — —

Root Cause

TF2 cannot find the requested frame. The frame publisher is not running or publishing to the wrong topic.

generic

Workarounds

  1. 90% success Run ros2 run tf2_tools view_frames to visualize the TF tree 
    ros2 run tf2_tools view_frames  # generates frames.pdf
  2. 88% success Check frame_id strings match exactly (no leading slash in ROS 2) 
    ROS 2 TF2 does NOT use leading slashes: use 'map' not '/map'
  3. 85% success Launch static_transform_publisher for missing static frames 
    ros2 run tf2_ros static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 parent child

Dead Ends

Common approaches that don't work:

  1. Add a sleep/retry loop waiting for the transform 72% fail

    Masks a configuration error; if the frame publisher is misconfigured the transform never appears

  2. Hardcode the transform as a 4x4 matrix instead of using TF2 88% fail

    Defeats TF2 purpose, breaks when robot moves, unmaintainable

  3. Increase TF buffer cache time to very large values 78% fail

    The frame was never published, not expired from cache