perceptions

Perceptions turns Hesai LiDAR returns and camera frames into colored cone positions on /associated_colored_cones for planning. The live path is LiDAR-first: the driver publishes centroids on /cones; point_to_pixel assigns color.

Hesai UDP → custom_ros_driver → /cones
         → point_to_pixel (+ cameras, /filter/twist)
         → /associated_colored_cones → planning

• Architecture: topics, timing, failure map
• Ops: bring-up and failure checks
• Physical calibration: intrinsics, extrinsics, projection math
• LiDAR driver: how /cones is produced
• Point-to-pixel: how color is assigned
• Regression harness: replay + reference compare (bag-extractor branch)

Packages and branch status

Component	Package / branch	Status
LiDAR driver	custom_ros_driver on prod/26x	Live. Some branches rename the package lidar_driver.
Point-to-pixel	point_to_pixel	Live coloring and history.
Physical calibration	scripts on feature/perc/physical-calibration	Multi-pose board solve; not fully on prod.
Regression harness	feature/perc/bag-extractor	regress + bag_extractor replay. Absent on prod.
Python perceptions, vendor Hesai, PCL	older packages	Not the live LiDAR-first path.

Pages that document branch-only behavior say so in a callout. Unmarked pages assume prod/26x names (custom_ros_driver, /lidar/ground_filtered, /lidar/log).