Camera for Gazebo Model?

asked 2014-09-03 16:11:50 -0500

K. Zeng
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updated 2014-09-04 15:05:54 -0500

So I'm using ROS Indigo along with Gazebo 2.2.3 on Ubuntu Trusty. I was wondering if there are any example codes of controlling said camera and visualize its data (i.e. project what it's seeing in a new window or something like that). For the sake of completeness, the model in question has a SDF model but no URDF model. I'm also using a stereo camera.

UPDATE (Sep 4): Ok, so I discovered that Gazebo has an existing camera model in its model database. I was able to visualize camera data (i.e. show what it's seeing) using existing menu commands in Gazebo. Last, but not least, I was also able to attach the camera to my Gazebo model. The big question that I need help with is how to write code so I can call the camera to visualize using terminal commands instead of going into the Gazebo menu?

answered 2014-09-04 14:53:57 -0500

joq
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You should be able to view the camera images in ROS the same way you would a real camera. The usual ROS utility for that is image_view.

You can run a command like this:

rosrun image_view image_view image:=/camera/image_raw

Provide your correct topic name for the image parameter.

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In the Gazebo topic selector, the topic for the camera feed shows up as /gazebo/default/mesh_robot/stereocamera/head/camera/images. I tried to replace /camera/image_raw with that, and I only got a blank window. Also, I forgot to mention this in the original question, but I'm using a stereo camera.

K. Zeng ( 2014-09-04 15:05:39 -0500 )edit

In that case, you probably want to run stereo_view, instead.

joq ( 2014-09-04 22:02:20 -0500 )edit

That makes sense. The issue is that from what I can see, only one image topic (/gazebo/default/mesh_robot/stereocamera/head/camera/images) shows up in Gazebo's topic selector.

K. Zeng ( 2014-09-05 13:42:46 -0500 )edit

I just tried to run "rosrun image_view stereo_view stereo:=/gazebo/default/mesh_robot/stereocamera/head/camera image:=images", but I'm still getting a grey screen even though I increased queue size and set approximate sync to true.

K. Zeng ( 2014-09-05 14:17:07 -0500 )edit

I pulled an rqt_graph, and it shows that Gazebo and the stereo view node aren't publishing or subscribing topics at all. The thing is, I know the stereo camera works because I was able to visualize the camera's data using Gazebo controls. I think at this point, I'm going to ask a separate question.

K. Zeng ( 2014-09-05 14:18:05 -0500 )edit

rostopic list will show them all.

joq ( 2014-09-06 11:17:16 -0500 )edit

This is strange, I ran rostopic list for an environment with the camera-equipped robot. The topics are the following:

/clock
/gazebo/link_states
/gazebo/model_states
/gazebo/parameter_descriptions
/gazebo/parameter_updates
/gazebo/set_link_state
/gazebo/set_model_state
/rosout
/rosout_agg

No images

K. Zeng ( 2014-09-11 16:10:10 -0500 )edit

In that case, there is something wrong with the way you are launching gazebo or its camera plugin.

joq ( 2014-09-12 05:45:31 -0500 )edit

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