As I suspected, the visualize
element was the answer. I've attached a complete example that can be used in a URDF for other's reference.
<gazebo reference="color_camera_link">
<sensor type="camera" name="camera">
<update_rate>30.0</update_rate>
<camera name="camera">
<horizontal_fov>${69.4 * pi / 180}</horizontal_fov>
<image>
<width>640</width>
<height>480</height>
<format>R8G8B8</format>
</image>
<clip>
<near>0.02</near>
<far>300</far>
</clip>
<noise>
<type>gaussian</type>
<mean>0.0</mean>
<stddev>0.007</stddev>
</noise>
</camera>
<plugin name="camera_controller" filename="libgazebo_ros_camera.so">
<alwaysOn>true</alwaysOn>
<updateRate>0.0</updateRate>
<cameraName>camera</cameraName>
<imageTopicName>color/image_raw</imageTopicName>
<cameraInfoTopicName>color/camera_info</cameraInfoTopicName>
<frameName>color_camera_frame</frameName>
<hackBaseline>0.07</hackBaseline>
<distortionK1>0.0</distortionK1>
<distortionK2>0.0</distortionK2>
<distortionK3>0.0</distortionK3>
<distortionT1>0.0</distortionT1>
<distortionT2>0.0</distortionT2>
</plugin>
<visualize>true</visualize>
</sensor>
</gazebo>
It looks like I might need to set the
visualize
element as defined here. Still working on getting this into my xacros.