Gazebo camera plugin

resource

Plugins can be added to any of the main elements of a URDF - a <robot>, <link>, or <joint> depending on what the scope and purpose of the plugin is. when add <plugin> to urdf we wrap it with <gazebo> element

Adding plugin to link element

<gazebo reference="<link_name>">
  <plugin name="camera_controller" filename="libgazebo_ros_camera.so">
    ... plugin parameters ...
  </plugin>
</gazebo>

Gazebo Camera

<gazebo reference="camera_link">
    <sensor type="camera" name="camera">
      <update_rate>30.0</update_rate>
      <camera name="head">
        <horizontal_fov>1.3962634</horizontal_fov>
        <image>
          <width>800</width>
          <height>800</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>bot/camera</cameraName>
        <imageTopicName>image_raw</imageTopicName>
        <cameraInfoTopicName>camera_info</cameraInfoTopicName>
        <frameName>camera_link</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>
    </sensor>
  </gazebo>
</robot>

Name and Topic

<sensor type="camera" name="camera">

• sensor name must be unique and used by cameraName

<cameraName>bot/camera</cameraName>
<imageTopicName>image_raw</imageTopicName>
<cameraInfoTopicName>camera_info</cameraInfoTopicName>

rostopic list

 rostopic list
/bot/camera/camera_info
/bot/camera/image_raw
/bot/camera/image_raw/compressed
/bot/camera/image_raw/compressed/parameter_descriptions
/bot/camera/image_raw/compressed/parameter_updates
/bot/camera/image_raw/compressedDepth
/bot/camera/image_raw/compressedDepth/parameter_descriptions
/bot/camera/image_raw/compressedDepth/parameter_updates
/bot/camera/image_raw/theora
/bot/camera/image_raw/theora/parameter_descriptions
/bot/camera/image_raw/theora/parameter_updates
/bot/camera/parameter_descriptions
/bot/camera/parameter_updates
...

tf

The coordinate frame the image is published under in the tf tree.

 <frameName>camera_link</frameName>

Test

• Terminal 1(launch gazebo)

roslaunch gazebo_ros empty_world.launch

• Terminal 2(spawn)

#from urdf path
rosrun gazebo_ros spawn_model -file camera.urdf -urdf -model bot

• Terminal 3(rqt)

rqt
# Plugins -> Visualization-> image viewer
# From combo /bot/camera/image_raw

• From gazebo add model in the front of camera

• Check view in rqt
  

Full urdf code

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<robot name="bot">


  <!-- Camera -->
  <link name="camera_link">
    <collision>
      <origin xyz="0 0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
      <geometry>
        <box size="0.05 0.05 0.05"/>
      </geometry>
    </collision>

    <visual>
      <origin xyz="0 0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
      <geometry>
        <box size="0.05 0.05 0.05"/>
      </geometry>
      <material name="red"/>
    </visual>

    <inertial>
      <mass value="1e-5" />
      <origin xyz="0 0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
      <inertia ixx="1e-6" ixy="0" ixz="0" iyy="1e-6" iyz="0" izz="1e-6" />
    </inertial>
  </link>

 

  <gazebo reference="camera_link">
    <sensor type="camera" name="camera">
      <update_rate>30.0</update_rate>
      <camera name="head">
        <horizontal_fov>1.3962634</horizontal_fov>
        <image>
          <width>800</width>
          <height>800</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>bot/camera</cameraName>
        <imageTopicName>image_raw</imageTopicName>
        <cameraInfoTopicName>camera_info</cameraInfoTopicName>
        <frameName>camera_link</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>
    </sensor>
  </gazebo>
</robot>