ximea_camera

1) License

Copyright 2015

• Abdelhamid El-Bably (University of Waterloo) [ahelbably@uwaterloo.ca]
• Arun Das (University of Waterloo) [adas@uwaterloo.ca]
• Michael Tribou (University of Waterloo) [mjtribou@uwaterloo.ca]
• Simon Schulz (University of Bielefeld) [sschulz@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de]

All rights reserved.

This software is distributed under the BSD three-clause license.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• Neither the name of the University of Waterloo nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

2) Dependencies

This software requires the Ximea Linux Software Package. See http://www.ximea.com/support/wiki/apis/XIMEA_Linux_Software_Package for details.

3) Basic Usage

This software provides ROS drivers for the ximea xiQ USB 3.0 Cameras. This driver supports image acquisition from an arbitrary number of cameras, so long as there is sufficient bandwidth on the USB 3.0 bus to perform the data transfer. In order to operate the cameras, the serial numbers of the devices must be known.

3.1) Config File

Create a configuration file for each camera. The configuration file should be kept in the /config folder. A configuration file will look as follows:

serial_no: "04653450"
cam_name: "cam_cc2017_car"
yaml_url: "package://ximea_camera/calibrations/cali_cc2017_car.yaml"
allocated_bandwidth: 1.0
image_data_format: "XI_RAW8"

• serial_no refers to the serial number of the camera
• cam_name is the name you wish to give to the camera
• yaml_url is the location of the calibration information file, which is used by the camera info manager to publish the calibration parameters (calibration file can be created with ROS Camera Calibrator)
• allocated_bandwidth refers to the usb3 bandwidth fraction you want to assign to this camera (use 1.0 if you have one cam and 0.5 for two etc)
• image_data_format: sets the data format for the image. Currently, formats XI_MONO16, XI_RGB24, XI_RGB32, XI_RAW8, XI_RAW16, and XI_MONO8 are supported
• camera_frame: frame of camera info message

3.2) Launch File

Create a launch file for your camera configuration. A typical launch file will look as follows:

<launch>
<!-- Camera Node -->
<node name="ximea" pkg="drive_ros_ximea_importer" type="ximea_camera_node" output="screen" >
  <rosparam param="camera_param_file_paths" subst_value="true">[$(find drive_ros_ximea_importer)/config/<config_file>.yaml]</rosparam>
  <param name="frame_rate" type="double" value="100.0" />
</node>

<!-- homography publisher -->
<node name="homography_publisher" pkg="drive_ros_ximea_importer" type="homography_publisher" output="screen" >
  <rosparam param="param_file_path" subst_value="true">$(find drive_ros_ximea_importer)/calibrations/<cali_file>.yaml</rosparam>
  <remap from="homography_out" to="<output_topic>"/>
</node>

</launch>

• camera_param_file_paths is a list of file names corresponding to the configuration files made for each camera in step 1. For a single camera setup, the camera_param_file_paths parameter would look something like:

<rosparam param="camera_param_file_paths" subst_value="true">[$(find ximea_camera)/config//<config_file>.yaml]</rosparam>

while a three camera setup would have a list containing the file names for the configuration files of all three cameras, separated by commas:

<rosparam param="camera_param_file_paths" subst_value="true">[$(find ximea_camera)/config/ximea1.yaml, $(find ximea_camera)/config/ximea2.yaml, $(find ximea_camera)/config/ximea3.yaml]</rosparam>

The homography publisher will publish additional homography parameters specified in param_file_path.

3.3) Start Launch File

You should now be able to plug in the cameras and launch the file created in step 2.

3.4) Dynamic Reconfigure

More parameters can be changed via Dynamic Reconfigure. For more infos on the parameters checkout the XiAPI Manual. The default values can be changed in: cfg/xiAPI.cfg (don't forget to rebuild after changing the *.cfg file).

4) Published Topics

Each set of published topics will be under the namespace corresponding to the camera name. Each camera will publish:

• /camera_info, which is of ROS message type sensor_msgs/CameraInfo. This message carries all of the camera specific calibration information.

• /image_raw/, which of of ROS message type sensor_msgs/Image. This message carries the image data.