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Build and Run

Build From Source​

Clone vizionsdk_ros2 into a ROS 2 workspace:

mkdir -p ~/ros2_ws/src
cd ~/ros2_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/TechNexion-Vision/vizionsdk-ros2.git vizionsdk_ros2
cd ~/ros2_ws

Install ROS dependencies and build the package:

source /opt/ros/<distro>/setup.bash
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
colcon build --symlink-install \
  --packages-select vizionsdk_ros2 \
  --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
source install/local_setup.bash

List Connected Cameras​

Use list_devices to show connected VizionSDK cameras and their device indexes:

ros2 run vizionsdk_ros2 list_devices

Show each camera's available image modes:

ros2 run vizionsdk_ros2 list_devices --formats

The camera node uses device_index to select a camera.

Start IMU Publishing​

Launch the camera node with the default settings:

ros2 launch vizionsdk_ros2 vizionsdk_camera.launch.py \
  publish_imu:=true

By default, the node opens device_index:=0, publishes IMU data on imu/data, and publishes camera status on camera/status.

Start Image Publishing​

Start IMU publishing plus image publishing:

ros2 launch vizionsdk_ros2 vizionsdk_camera.launch.py \
  device_index:=0 \
  publish_imu:=true \
  publish_image:=true \
  image_format:=MJPG \
  image_width:=1920 \
  image_height:=1080 \
  image_framerate:=30

For MJPG, the node publishes sensor_msgs/msg/CompressedImage on image_raw/compressed.

To publish a raw image format, select one of the raw formats advertised by the camera. Use list_devices --formats to check supported image_format, image_width, image_height, and image_framerate values:

ros2 launch vizionsdk_ros2 vizionsdk_camera.launch.py \
  publish_image:=true \
  image_format:=BGR \
  image_width:=1280 \
  image_height:=720 \
  image_framerate:=30

Raw image formats publish sensor_msgs/msg/Image on image_raw.

note

UYVY and YUY2 are packed YUV422 formats. If you want to view these streams in RViz or rqt_image_view, run yuv422_to_bgr_node to convert the image topic to bgr8. See YUV422 Viewing.

Connect From Other ROS 2 Nodes​

After vizionsdk_camera_node is running, other ROS 2 nodes can subscribe to the standard topics published by the node:

ros2 topic list

For example, inspect the IMU topic:

ros2 topic echo /imu/data

Inspect camera status:

ros2 topic echo /camera/status

Customer applications should subscribe to image_raw, image_raw/compressed, camera_info, imu/data, or camera/status depending on the data they need. Camera controls exposed by this wrapper can be changed with ROS parameters while the node is running.

View With RViz​

Use the compressed RViz configuration for MJPG streams:

rviz2 -d install/vizionsdk_ros2/share/vizionsdk_ros2/rviz/vizionsdk_imu_camera_compressed.rviz

Use the uncompressed RViz configuration for raw image streams such as BGR, BGRA, or RGB:

rviz2 -d install/vizionsdk_ros2/share/vizionsdk_ros2/rviz/vizionsdk_imu_camera.rviz

To view an MJPG stream with rqt_image_view, start the viewer and select image_raw/compressed:

rqt_image_view

If RViz or rqt_image_view reports a missing compressed transport plugin, install it and source the ROS 2 environment again:

sudo apt install ros-<distro>-compressed-image-transport
source /opt/ros/<distro>/setup.bash
source install/local_setup.bash

Test the ROS 2 Package​

Build and run the package tests:

source /opt/ros/<distro>/setup.bash
colcon build --packages-select vizionsdk_ros2 \
  --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
colcon test --packages-select vizionsdk_ros2
colcon test-result --verbose

Run a release build before publishing:

colcon build --packages-select vizionsdk_ros2 \
  --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release