[ROS] cv_camera vs. raspicam_node

[Pito Salas]

Hi all!

I posted this to stack overflow, but I thought maybe one of you might have some thoughts on it.

 I am running a ROS1 robot, on a raspberry Pi, with Ubuntu 20.04. I have a working Raspi V2 camera hooked up. My plan is to identify fiducials.

In the past I've used raspicam_node but that code has not been touched in a while and really is not supported. I don't love it but with a struggle I can get it to work.

I see that cv_camera might be an alternative, but I don't know if I would be trading one set of headaches for another set.

Does anyone have experience with this trade-off?

Thanks!

Pito

[Marco Walther]

On 2/17/24 05:35, Pito Salas wrote:
> Hi all!
Hello,

below is my take on it, but as always people have different expectations
and requirements.

>
> I posted this to stack overflow, but I thought maybe one of you might
> have some thoughts on it.
>
>  I am running a ROS1 robot, on a raspberry Pi, with Ubuntu 20.04. I
> have a working Raspi V2 camera hooked up. My plan is to identify fiducials.

That is probably a 32bit system? There you have some choices;-) (The
binary blob code, which makes the RaspiCam working so well/fast will not
be available on 64bit!)

Some things to keep in mind:
* Raspi 3 and below had a rather slow USB setup. So, there I would keep
the RaspiCam (unless you switch to some smart camera setup, where only
processed info needs to travel)

* Raspi 4 can work with both. RaspiCam might not get the big speed
advantage, but it can work, even in 64bit. USB/webcam's should also work ok.

* Raspi 5 will only officially be supported by Ubuntu 24.04, I have mine
running with a 23.10 kernel+ in a 22.04 system and it seems to be ok.

>
> In the past I've used raspicam_node but that code has not been touched
> in a while and really is not supported. I don't love it but with a
> struggle I can get it to work.

That's probably an effect of the 'will only work in 32bit' limitation.
Things work there but there does not seem to be a real way forward for
that code. There are other nodes for the RaspiCam-hardware which do not
rely on the binary code, they work in 64bit systems.

>
> I see that cv_camera might be an alternative, but I don't know if I
> would be trading one set of headaches for another set.

Ask Alan;-) He had fun making things work.

I think as with all things 'ROS', try to keep as many things stable as
you can. Changing things at the 'base level' will always involve some
'pain/effort' for initially little gain. At the end of the day, the
raspicam-node (software) or any other [normal] camera node will publish
an /image topic and the interesting tasks come while consuming that;-)

Just my EUR 0.02;-)
-- Marco

>
> Does anyone have experience with this trade-off?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Pito
>

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[Pito Salas]

Hi all

So far I am liking cv_camera and opencv for aruco detecting. It is better documented and hopefully better maintained. And btw it does work with Pi cameras.

Thanks,

Pito

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