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

```bash 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

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