PR Type

• New Feature

Related Links

Description

Add a GPU-accelerated decode path for Hesai LiDAR sensors using CUDA. The feature is:

• Compile-time opt-in: Build with -DBUILD_CUDA=ON. When CUDA toolkit is not found, the build silently falls back to CPU-only.
• Runtime opt-in: Set NEBULA_USE_CUDA=1 environment variable. When unset, the existing CPU path is used with zero overhead.

What it does

• Processes an entire scan in a single batched CUDA kernel launch (launch_decode_hesai_scan_batch)
• Uses pre-computed angle lookup tables (azimuth/elevation) uploaded to GPU once at initialization
• Supports calibration-based and correction-based angle correctors
• Currently validated on OT128 (Pandar128E4X) sensor

Files changed

Known limitations

• GPU kernel does not set return_type field (always 0)
• Scan boundary detection differs from CPU's ScanCutter, causing up to ~1850 points to shift between adjacent scans (out of ~72k per scan)

Review Procedure

Build (with CUDA)

colcon build --packages-up-to nebula_hesai \
  --cmake-args -DBUILD_CUDA=ON -DBUILD_TESTING=ON

Requires NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit (tested with CUDA 12.x). If the toolkit is not found, the build succeeds but CUDA support is silently disabled.

Running with CUDA enabled

The GPU decode path is gated by a runtime environment variable:

# Enable GPU decoding
export NEBULA_USE_CUDA=1

# Launch the driver node as usual — it will log "GPU scan batching enabled" on startup
ros2 launch nebula_hesai ...

# To disable (default), unset the variable
unset NEBULA_USE_CUDA

Test

# Run all tests (132 existing + 5 new CUDA tests)
source install/setup.bash
colcon test --packages-select nebula_hesai --ctest-args -V

# Or run CUDA tests only
./build/nebula_hesai/hesai_cuda_decoder_test_main

Test results

[==========] Running 5 tests from 1 test suite.
[ RUN      ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_GpuVsCpuEquivalence
[       OK ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_GpuVsCpuEquivalence (21778 ms)
[ RUN      ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_GpuOutputNonEmpty
[       OK ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_GpuOutputNonEmpty (388 ms)
[ RUN      ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_GpuFieldValidity
[       OK ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_GpuFieldValidity (378 ms)
[ RUN      ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_BoundaryScanPointCounts
[       OK ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_BoundaryScanPointCounts (369 ms)
[ RUN      ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_IntensityExactMatch
[       OK ] HesaiCudaDecoderTest.OT128_IntensityExactMatch (17217 ms)
[  PASSED  ] 5 tests.

# Full suite
Summary: 137 tests, 0 errors, 0 failures, 0 skipped

Remarks

• When CUDA is not compiled in (BUILD_CUDA=OFF), the 5 CUDA tests are compiled but skip at runtime via GTEST_SKIP(), so they do not break CPU-only CI.
• Tolerances in the equivalence tests were derived from a single OT128 rosbag. See test file header for observed values.

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• Commits are properly organized and messages are according to the guideline
• (Optional) Unit tests have been written for new behavior
• PR title describes the changes

Post-Review Checklist for the PR Author

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• All open points are addressed and tracked via issues or tickets

CI Checks

• Build and test for PR: Required to pass before the merge.