differences between camera plugins in GAZEBO

Question

Hello all.

I looking to install a camera sensor on my robot, in a GAZEBO simulation. I encountered several different plugins :

1. gazebo_ros_depth_camera
2. gazebo_ros_prosilica
3. gazebo_ros_camera

Is there difference between those different plugins ? Also i would happy to know where can i found some documentation about the plugins ? (there is nothing inside the packages... )

Thanks.

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Originally posted by dmeltz on ROS Answers with karma: 192 on 2012-09-12

Post score: 2

Answer 1

GazeboRosProsilica plugin strives to provide ROS topic and service interfaces similar to those provided by the Prosilica Camera hardware on PR2.

And as trinighost mentioned, GazeboRosCamera and GazeboRosDepthCamera plugin provides ROS interfaces similar to those offered by wge100 camera. The only difference between the two is that GazeboRosCamera maps to Gazebo Camera Sensor, whereas GazeboRosDepthCamera maps to the Gazebo Depth Camera Sensor. GazeboRosDepthCamera is able to publish 3D pointcloud using the camera's z-buffer.

Recently, GazeboRosDepthCamera have evolved into (been duplicated by) GazeboRosOpenniKinect (replicating ROS interface offered by openni_camera), I am looking to retire one of the two in a way that hopefully will not break anyone depending on either one of these plugins.

Please let me know if this is the information you were looking for... I'd like to update the documentation on ros wiki with more detail, your input is very valuable, thanks!

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Originally posted by hsu with karma: 5780 on 2012-09-12

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 4

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Original comments

Comment by Gazer on 2013-07-04:
Hi. I am looking to simulate swissranger_camera in Gazebo; I found that previous model use "gazebo block laser" as a camera plugin. We will need pointcould2 as an input source for PCL_Ros, which produce the image. But the "block laser plugin" only publish pointcloud1. I am wondering

Comment by Gazer on 2013-07-04:
will ROSDepthCamera suits our needs?

Comment by tasneem2000 on 2023-06-17:
i used GazeboRosOpenniKinect in my URDF to generate a 3D pointcloud but the z values are always either 4.0 or 0.0. this means it cannot see all z levels right? if yes please recommend me a way to generate a 3D pointcloud to determine the heights of the obstacles.