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: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. Some cameras require HTTP Digest authentication instead of basic authentication. If this is the case for your camera, make sure to also set the encrypt_password argument im axis.launch. (The Q62 series cameras are known to require digest authentication.)

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 digest authentication instead of basic authentication, set the encrypt_password argument:

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

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 encrypt_password:=true 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/Axis.msg type:

float32 pan
float32 tilt
float32 zoom
float32 focus
float32 brightness
float32 iris
bool autofocus
bool autoiris

To write to the camera, use

rostopic pub /camera_name/cmd axis_camera/Axis "{pan: 45.0, tilt: 20.0, zoom: 1000.0, focus: 0.0, brightness: 1.0, iris: 1.0, autofocus: true, autoiris: true}" -1

All writable camera properties are set simultaneously. It is recommended to read the camera’s current state from /camera_name/state, copy the focus, autofocus, brightness, and iris parameters, and then set the pan, tilt and zoom fields as desired. Failure to set the brightness field may result in a very dark image.

pan and tilt are expressed in degrees (for ease of use with Axis’ REST API) with positive tilt being upwards and positive pan being clockwise.

zoom is a value from 1 to 10000, with higher numbers indicating a narrower field of view.

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.

Change history

0.4.3 (2022-08-22)

• Merge pull request #73 from jhiggins-cpr/noetic-devel Add frames-per-second (fps) as a configurable option
• Reverting package change as it happens automatically
• Add frames-per-second (fps) as a configurable option
• Contributors: Jason Higgins, Tony Baltovski

0.4.2 (2022-07-29)

• Explicitly use Python3 in shebang for teleop nodes; remove unnecessary shebang in setup.py (#72)
• Contributors: Joey Yang

0.4.1 (2022-06-16)

• Fix the #! lines to use python3, decode the utf8 bytes into a string to suppress a warning when parsing the camera position
• Contributors: Chris Iverach-Brereton

0.4.0 (2021-11-29)

• upgraded cmakelist and package.xml, and setup.py for noetic (#70)
• Update the python files to be python-3 compliant. Fix some bugs in the image data parsing needed as part of this update
• Merge pull request #55 from sgemme-csa/master KeyError in publishCameraState when camera is not ready on PTZ camera
• Merge branch 'master' of github.com:ros-drivers/axis_camera
• Expose the height & width parameters as arguments in the launch file
• Merge pull request #56 from jeff-o/patch-1 Update axis.launch
• Revert "Fix up the main scripts to be python-3 compliant" This reverts commit 569e4b22415edee653914fa387a689d2e85e2879.
• Fix up the main scripts to be python-3 compliant
• Merge branch 'master' of github.com:ros-drivers/axis_camera

0.3.2 (2021-05-21)

• Improve support for the F34 and F44 multi-camera controllers by adding default values for the camera index (1-4). Change the camera arg in view_axis to camera_name, change its default IP address to better-match with the main axis.launch file
• Contributors: Chris Iverach-Brereton

0.3.1 (2020-12-10)

• Merge pull request #62 from ros-drivers/teleop-axis Fixed tele-op axis params.
• Merge pull request #55 from sgemme-csa/master KeyError in publishCameraState when camera is not ready on PTZ camera
• Expose the height & width parameters as arguments in the launch file
• Merge pull request #56 from jeff-o/patch-1 Update axis.launch
• Merge pull request #58 from luishowell/master add support for quad video
• Merge pull request #61 from cclauss/patch-1 Fix Python 3 syntax error
• Remove the html_static directory from conf.py; it doesn't exist anyway and is just creating a warning that's causing Jenkins to see the build as unstable
• Fix Python 3 syntax error #52 again
• Remove the :: leftover from the .rst
• Copy the README contents to the .md so they show up on the github main page
• Update the maintainer now that Clearpath is officially maintaining this package again
• Merge pull request #54 from k-okada/add_travis
• update travis.yml
• add support for quad video
• Update axis.launch Adds the "camera" param to the launch file. Helps launch the driver cleanly when used with other drivers that also use "camera" as a param name.
• No need to close connection as it will get garbage collected
• Merge remote-tracking branch 'csa/develop' into github-master
• Adjusting error message on KeyError
• Merge remote-tracking branch 'github/master' into develop
• Merge branch 'develop' of git+ssh://liberty/data/git/ros/axis_camera into develop
• Fixing camera telemetry where accessing its telemetry before a certain time after startup would causes a KeyError because the fields in the response were not present. Now catching the KeyError exception to fix the problem.
• Fixing camera telemetry where accessing its telemetr before a certain time after startup would cause a KeyError because the fiels in the response were not present, now catchin the KeyError exception to fix the problem
• Fixing connection problem which was causing the telemetry to stall
• Contributors: Chris I-B, Christian Clauss, Howell, Jeff Schmidt, Kei Okada, Sebastien Gemme, jmastrangelo-cpr

0.3.0 (2018-05-25)

• Merge pull request #49 from rossctaylor/feature/support_for_f34 Add: support for Axis F34 multicamera switch
• Merge pull request #48 from tonybaltovski/pan-tilt-parms Added ROS params for the pan and tilt axis.
• Contributors: Ross Taylor, Tony Baltovski

0.2.1 (2017-11-17)

• add ros-orphaned-maintaner to package.xml (#50)
• Set queue_size to Publishers in axis_camera (#47)
• Point package.xml URLs at ros-drivers org. (#39)
• sending camera_info (#38)
  • copying stamp so rectification happens
  • sending camera_info
• Contributors: Kei Okada, Kentaro Wada, Mike Purvis, Sam Pfeiffer, Micah Corah

0.2.0 (2015-05-06)

• Merge pull request #35 from pal-robotics-forks/support_axis212ptz Added support for Axis 212 PTZ.
• Merge pull request #29 from negre/master handle encrypted password authentication
• Added support for Axis 212 PTZ. Also made the exception when something goes wrong in the state grabber clearer.
• Merge pull request #34 from CreativeEntropy/patch-1 Create LICENSE file (New BSD)
• Create LICENSE (New BSD) Create LICENSE file to make copyright clear.
• Merge pull request #31 from clearpathrobotics/jeff-o-patch-1 Update axis.launch
• Update axis.launch Corrects an issue where a topic subscribes and publishes to the same node (axis/republish).
• handle encrypted password authentication
• Contributors: Jeff Schmidt, Julian Schrittwieser, Mike Purvis, Sammy Pfeiffer, amaury

0.1.0 (2014-07-31)

• Hydro and Indigo release.
• Several bugfixes and general tidyup.
• Rename compressed topic image_raw/compressed (#5).
• Convert to catkin (#12).

0.0.2 (2013-04-10)

• Fuerte update.
• Add frame_id parameter (fixes #8)
• Add camera_info_manager support (#10). Adds a new dependency on camera_info_manager_py, and a new camera_info_url parameter.
• Add some additional PTZ control nodes: teleop.py, teleop_twist.py, axis_twist.py, axis_all.py.
• Add PTZ transform publisher: publish_axis_tf.py.

0.0.1 (2012-12-05)

• Fuerte release.
• Initial axis_camera package.