Spinnaker ROS2 Synchronized Camera Driver

This package provides a driver specifically for hardware synchronized cameras made by Teledyne/FLIR that work with the Spinnaker SDK. The main difference to running several instances of the unsynchronized camera driver is that this driver will assign identical header time stamps to frames that have been generated by the same synchronization pulse.

NOTE: This driver is not written or supported by FLIR.

Tested Configurations

Cameras

The following cameras have been used with this driver:

• Blackfly S (USB3)
• Blackfly (GigE)

Platforms

• ROS2 Galactic under Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (no longer actively tested)
• ROS2 Humble/Iron/Rolling under Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• Spinnaker 3.1.0.79 (other versions may work as well but this is what the continuous integration builds are using)

How to install

The installation is analogous to the one for the unsynchronized spinnaker camera driver.

How to use

It is recommended to first get the cameras working with SpinView, then with the single-camera driver individually before proceeding with the synchronized setup.

The synchronized camera server works by instantiating a number of individual camera servers and exposure controllers. Each camera server is fully configurable with all parameters available as listed in the spinnaker camera driver. Likewise each exposure controller has its own parameter set.

There are two types of controllers: master controllers and followers. The master controllers regulate the brightness of the camera they are controlling, while follower controllers set the exposure parameters of the camera they are controlling based on the exposure parameters of the master controller they follow.

Since there are many parameters involved the setup can be tricky. It is recommended to start from the follower_example.launch.py example when using a stereo camera for e.g. VIO, or the master_example.launch.py when running cameras with individual exposure control.

Topics

Published:

• ~/<camera_name>/image_raw: the synchronized camera image
• ~/<camera_name>/camera_info: the synchronized camera calibration messages
• ~/<camera_name>/meta: synchronized meta data like exposure time and gain

Synchronized server parameters

• cameras (list of strings): names of the cameras. Default: empty list.
• exposure_controllers (list of strings): names of the exposure controllers. List must be of same length as the list of camera names.

Camera server parameters

For a list of all parameters, see the spinnaker camera driver. The parameters are exposed under <camera_name>.parameter.

Exposure controller parameters

• Master exposure controller:

  • brightness target (int): average image brightness to accomplish. Value range is [0..255]. Default: 120.
  • brightness_tolerance (int): how much actual brightness can deviate for brightness_target before the control parameters are updated. Default: 5.
  • exposure_parameter (string): Name of the ROS parameter under which exposure time is accessible for the single camera driver. This must match the ros parameter name associated with the Spinnaker node that controls exposure time, which is set in the camera .yaml config file. Default: exposure_time.
  • gain_parameter (string): Name of the ROS parameter controlling camera gain. See camera .yaml config file. Default: gain.

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Changelog for package spinnaker_synchronized_camera_driver

3.0.2 (2025-05-25)

• avoid ament_target_dependencies
• Contributors: Bernd Pfrommer

3.0.1 (2025-04-01)

• added missing ament_cmake_ros_dep to sync driver
• Contributors: Bernd Pfrommer

3.0.0 (2024-11-21)

• added primary_secondary launch file
• updated docs for sync driver, switch to RST
• added follower exposure controller renamed individual -> master
• fixes to compile on focal/galactic
• remove more spinnaker imports
• track incomplete frames
• fixed licensing documentation
• implement individual exposure controller
• fixed bugs discovered when running on GigE cams
• fix dependency on ament_cmake_black
• look in single driver lib if spinnaker not installed
• do not look for include files since not needed
• added first implementation of synchronized driver
• Contributors: Bernd Pfrommer

2.0.8 (2023-11-14)

2.0.7 (2023-10-03)

2.0.6 (2023-08-12)

2.0.5 (2023-08-11)

2.0.4 (2023-08-10)

2.0.3 (2023-08-01)

2.0.2 (2023-07-28)

2.0.1 (2023-07-24)

2.0.0 (2023-07-20)

0.2.5 (2023-01-06 20:18)

0.2.4 (2023-01-06 11:43)

0.2.3 (2022-04-19)

0.2.2 (2022-03-28)

0.2.1 (2022-03-21)

0.2.0 (2022-03-11)

0.1.3 (2018-09-25)

0.1.2 (2018-07-27)

0.1.1 (2018-07-25)

0.1.0 (2018-07-24)