# LIO with TOF LiDAR: Seeking Point Intensity & Noise Data from mpa_to_ros

Source: https://forum.modalai.com/topic/4527/lio-with-tof-lidar-seeking-point-intensity-noise-data-from-mpa_to_ros
Category: General Questions (https://forum.modalai.com/category/2/general-questions)
Posted: 2025-06-19 13:29:38 UTC by Judoor 0
Replies: 5 · Views: 1143

## Judoor 0 · 2025-06-19 13:29:38 UTC

Hello everyone,

I'm working on developing a LIO (LiDAR-Inertial Odometry) algorithm and am looking to use TOF (Time-of-Flight) LiDAR data.

When I look at the ROS messages published by mpa_to_ros, I only seem to receive the points positions. I'm wondering if it's possible to also include the intensity value and noise information for each point?

Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

## Reply by Aaron Porter · 2025-06-23 20:20:43 UTC

@Judoor-0, are you using the ModalAI TOF? Depending on the point cloud format, I see that there is a way to get the confidence level and the rgb values from the point cloud data. You might be able to use the RGB as intensity and the confidence value for Noise information. I can test it out if you are using a ModalAI TOF to check the PointCloud formatting just so I can give you a full answer.

## Reply by Judoor 0 · 2025-06-24 08:43:43 UTC (in reply to Aaron Porter)

@Aaron-Porter Hi Aaron, Yes i'm using the modalAI TOF with a Starling2 MAX. If you can test it, I'll appreciate it ! Thank you!

## Reply by Judoor 0 · 2025-07-04 09:13:25 UTC (in reply to Aaron Porter)

@Aaron-Porter Hi,
Did you had time to check it out ?
Julien

## Reply by teddy.zaremba · 2025-07-09 16:57:06 UTC (in reply to Judoor 0)

Hi @Judoor-0,

So I'm not aware of any service that publishes pointcloud data with the format FLOAT_XYZRGB. I know that when you're using voxl-mapper, voxl-portal receives point cloud data with the format FLOAT_XYZC (c for confidence) on the pipe "voxl_mapper_aligned_ptcloud". It then uses the confidence to color the map.

I gave this a test on my end, and I think I may have found a bug in voxl-mpa-to-ros2 where it won't acknowledge pointcloud data other than FLOAT_XYZ even after verifying FLOAT_XYZC is being published. I'll look into it, but you can get started by setting up voxl-mapper because you'll need to listen on the topic "voxl_mapper_aligned_ptcloud". 

Here's some instructions for setting up voxl-mapper:
https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-mapper/

## Reply by Judoor 0 · 2025-07-10 08:42:04 UTC (in reply to teddy.zaremba)

@teddy-zaremba Thank you
I think Aaron was maybe talking about the depth image that we can get from the tof sensor.
I'll check the aligned point cloud but i don't think he has the confidence data (XYZC)
Julien