axis_camera

Overview

This ROS package provides an Axis network camera driver, written in Python.

ROS wiki documentation: axis_camera

This driver is under active development. Its ROS interfaces are relatively stable, but may still change.

There is no released code API.

⚠️Warning

The master branch normally contains code being tested for the next ROS release. It does not always work with previous ROS distributions. Sometimes, it may not work at all.

Each official release is tagged in the repository. The change history describes every version.

Supported Cameras

The following is a list of cameras that have been tested with this driver and are known to work. Other cameras may also be usable, but have not been tested by the developers/maintainers of this package.

If you have used this driver with a specific model of camera not listed below, please submit a PR so we can keep this list up-to-date.

• F Series
• M30 Series
• P55 Series
• Q62 Series

Camera Preparation

Before using the ROS driver you should ensure your camera is properly connected to the PC and powered as-per the manufacturer's specifications.

We recommend configuring the camera to use a static IP address on your robot's internal wired LAN, rather than DHCP. Because the driver addresses the camera by hostname or IP address it's easier if the address is constant.

HTTP Authentication and Anonymous Control

By default most Axis cameras require HTTP authentication to view the camera data & to send PTZ (or other) commands.

There are two solutions to this:

1. Log into the camera's web GUI and enable Anomymous Viewers and Anonymous PTZ Operators. These options can usually be found under settings > Users
2. Configure the launch file to use a valid Axis user's username and password. This is done with the username and password arguments to axis.launch. Most modern Axis cameras used HTTP Digest authorization. If your camera only supports basic HTTP authentication, set the encrypt_password argument to false in axis.launch.

Usage Examples

Once the camera is configured, simply launch the driver:

roslaunch axis_camera axis.launch hostname:=192.168.0.90 username:=root password:=password

If your camera requires basic authentication instead of digest authentication, set the encrypt_password argument:

roslaunch axis_camera axis.launch hostname:=192.168.0.90 username:=root password:=password encrypt_password:=false

If your camera supports PTZ control, you can enable it with

roslaunch axis_camera axis.launch hostname:=192.168.0.90 username:=root password:=password enable_ptz:=true

In the case of the F Series cameras, multiple cameras can be connected to a single controller box. In this case, launch the driver once for each physical camera, specifying the camera name & ID number. The ID number corresponds to the physical port in the e.g. F34 controller (1-4).

roslaunch axis_camera axis.launch hostname:=192.168.0.90 username:=root password:=password camera_name:=front_camera camera:=1

roslaunch axis_camera axis.launch hostname:=192.168.0.90 username:=root password:=password camera_name:=rear_camera camera:=2

The Q62 Series cameras also feature a night-vision mode (adds and IR illuminator and disables the IR filter), a lens wiper, and a defogger in addition to the normal PTZ control. To enable all of this camera's supported features, use

roslaunch axis_camera axis.launch hostname:=192.168.0.90 username:=root password:=password enable_ptz:=true enable_ir:=true enable_defog:=true enable_wiper:=true

Topics and Services

The camera's main image data is published on /camera_name/image_raw/compressed as a sensor_msgs/CompressedImage.

If the enable_theora argument is true then additional image topics are available in the /camera_name/image_raw_out namespace, including /camera_name/image_raw_out/theora as theora_image_transport/Packet messages.

PTZ control (if enabled) uses the axis_camera/Ptz.msg type:

float32 pan
float32 tilt
float32 zoom

The driver supports both position and velocity control using the same message type. The camera's current position is published using the Ptz.msg format on /camera_name/state/position. The camera's velocity is not reported at present.

Position control

Pan and tilt are expressed in radians, with positive pan being anticlockwise relative and positive tilt being upwards. The pan angle covers a full circle, from -pi to pi. Tilt covers a semicircle, from -pi/2 to pi/2. Larger zoom values indicate a narrower field of view

• pan: [-3.14, 3.14]
• tilt: [-1.57, 1.57]
• zoom: [1, 9999]

To send a position command to the camera, use something like

rostopic pub /camera_name/cmd/position axis_camera/Ptz "{pan: 0.0, tilt: 0.0, zoom: 1.0}" -1

Velocity control

Pan and tilt are expressed in rad/s, with positive pan being anticlockwise relative and positive tilt being upwards. Axis cameras support a maximum of 150 degrees/s, approximately 2.61 rad/s. Positive zoom values will zoom in, negative zoom values will zoom out. Sending a zero in any field will cease all movement

• pan: [-2.61, 2.61]
• tilt: [-2.61, 2.61]
• zoom: [-100, 100]

To send a velocity command to the camera, use something like

rostopic pub /camera_name/cmd/velocity axis_camera/Ptz "{pan: 1.5, tilt: 0.0, zoom: 0.0}" -1

The camera will continue to move until commanded to stop. To stop the movement, send an all-zero command:

rostopic pub /camera_name/cmd/velocity axis_camera/Ptz "{pan: 0.0, tilt: 0.0, zoom: 0.0}" -1

IR, Wiper, Defogger Services

The Q62 camera features an optional IR mode, a lens wiper, and a heater for defogging the lens in cold conditions.

The Q62 Series' IR mode can be toggled by running

rosservice call /camera_name/set_ir_on "data: true"  # or "data: false"

When IR mode is on the IR illuminator will be turned on and the IR filter turned off. The current state of the IR mode can be read from /camera_name/ir_on as a std_msgs/Bool.

To enable the defogger, run

rosservice call /camera_name/set_defog_on "data: true"  # or "data: false"

The current state of the defogger can be read from /camera_name/defog_on as a std_msgs/Bool.

To start the lens wiper, run

rosservice call /camera_name/set_wiper_on "data: true"

The wiper will run for 10s and stop automatically. You can stop the wiper early by running

rosservice call /camera_name/set_wiper_on "data: false"

The current state of the wiper can be read from /camera_name/wiper_on as a std_msgs/Bool.