Is ROS/Turtlebot 2 compatible with any camera?

asked 2016-04-08 20:28:27 -0500

pgigioli
354 ●29 ●33 ●38

updated 2016-04-08 22:13:03 -0500

I'm fairly new to ROS so I apologize if this is an obvious question. What restrictions, if any, does ROS and/or the turtlebot 2 have when it comes to camera compatibility?

I want to use a Logitech Quickcam Orbit AF found here but it's a bit pricey so I don't want to buy it until I know for sure that I'll be able to use it. It has a mic and can pan and tilt about its base automatically. Will I be able to use these features as well?

Does anyone have experience using this type of camera or other cameras that don't necessarily have a lot of documentation?

What steps would I need to take in order to implement a new camera with ROS?

Thanks!

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answered 2016-04-09 02:10:41 -0500

ahendrix

47576 ●179 ●367 ●662 http://namniart.com/

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/... and http://www.iheartrobotics.com/2010/05...

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-ro... - 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 uses the older rosbuild system, so might be a little out of date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_... - 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... - an older answer on ROS Answers with users discussing this camera, with various drivers and links to source.