image_common

A collection of ROS 2 packages providing core infrastructure for working with images and cameras in robotic systems. Part of the ROS Perception stack.

Packages

image_transport

The core image transport library. Provides a plugin-based architecture for publishing and subscribing to images in raw or compressed form, transparently switching between transports without changing application code.

• Publisher / CameraPublisher — publish images with optional camera info
• Subscriber / CameraSubscriber — subscribe to images with transport hints
• SubscriberFilter — integration with message_filters
• republish node — re-publish images between transports
• list_transports — list available transport plugins
• Lifecycle node support and QoS override

image_transport_py

Python bindings (pybind11) for image_transport, exposing ImageTransport, Publisher, Subscriber, CameraPublisher, and CameraSubscriber to Python 3 nodes.

camera_calibration_parsers

Read and write sensor_msgs/CameraInfo calibration data to/from disk.

• YAML (.yaml / .yml) and INI (.ini) format support
• convert command-line tool for format conversion

camera_info_manager

C++ CameraInfoManager class for camera drivers that need to load, save, and serve calibration data.

• Loads calibration from file://, package://, and other URL schemes
• Handles sensor_msgs/SetCameraInfo service requests
• Thread-safe; supports lifecycle nodes

camera_info_manager_py

Pure Python equivalent of camera_info_manager for Python-based camera drivers.

• CameraInfoManager and ZoomCameraInfoManager classes
• YAML-based calibration storage
• Drop-in counterpart to the C++ package

Installation

From binary packages

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-image-common

From source

mkdir -p ~/ros2_ws/src
cd ~/ros2_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/ros-perception/image_common.git
cd ~/ros2_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
colcon build --packages-select image_common

Tutorials

Step-by-step tutorials for writing publishers and subscribers with image_transport are available in the companion repository:

ros-perception/image_transport_tutorials

Topics covered include:

• Publishing and subscribing to images with image_transport
• Using transport hints to select a specific transport
• Writing a custom transport plugin
• Python usage via image_transport_py

ROS 2 Distro Support

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open issues and pull requests on GitHub.

License

BSD 3-Clause. See LICENSE for details.