Revision history [back]

ROS isn't one big monolithic thing that either does or does not have support for a particular piece of hardware. It's more nuanced than that.

ROS compatibility with cameras depends mostly on whether or not you can find a camera driver that supports the camera you're interested in. There are a few common camera drivers available for ROS that are listed elsewhere: http://answers.ros.org/question/9089/what-driver-should-i-use-for-my-usb-camera/ and http://www.iheartrobotics.com/2010/05/testing-ros-usb-camera-drivers.html

As for that specific camera, I've seen them on ROS robots in the past, so it seems like someone got the driver working at some point.

A quick google search for "ros quickcam orbit" turns up a number of open-source projects with drivers:

• https://github.com/Teknoman117/ucm-ros-pkg/blob/master/kybernetes_drivers/uvc_camera/src/node.cpp - not well documented but looks like it integrates the driver and control. uses the older rosbuild system, so might be a little out of date
• https://github.com/AndreaCensi/orbit_camera_actuator - simple, just does PTZ. updated for catkin, so has a slightly higher chance of working, but you'll need a separate node to acquire images.
• http://answers.ros.org/question/10365/using-the-player-package/ - an older answer on ROS Answers with users discussing this camera, with various drivers and links to source.