[ros-users] Adding a New Stereo System to ROS

[Jack O'Quin]

On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 6:50 AM, Adi Shavit <adishavit at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>   I am new to ROS.

Welcome!

> I have a 4 camera stereo set using 4 synchronized cameras that are not
> supported by ROS.
> This is not unlike what PR2 uses.
> I would like to use these camera with ROS.
> What is the best way to do this?

That depends on what kind of cameras they are.

> Do I need to write my own "driver"?

Yes, unless someone has already written one.

> That is code that interfaces with the
> camera APIs and publishes to ROS?

Yes.

> In that case, what do I publish? Do I give only raw image output or is there
> a way to publish a stereo pair?

There are standard ROS ways to publish stereo data.

 http://www.ros.org/wiki/stereo_image_proc
 http://www.ros.org/wiki/camera_calibration
 http://www.ros.org/wiki/image_pipeline

> Are there any examples for how to do this, e.g. from some other stereo
> cameras?

 http://www.ros.org/wiki/bumblebee2
 http://www.ros.org/wiki/videre_stereo_cam

> What is the easiest way to do this? As I said I am new to ROS.

The extra ROS wrapping for publishing camera data does not involve
much additional code, but does require a basic understanding of the
image pipeline. So, study the interfaces and look at examples of other
drivers, then ask more questions.
-- 
 joq