RealSense Camera with ROS 2 Sample Application

This tutorial tells you how to:

• Launch ROS nodes for a camera.

• List ROS topics.

• Confirm that RealSense camera topics are publishing data.

• Retrieve data from the RealSense camera (data coming at FPS).

• Visualize an image from the RealSense camera displayed in rviz2.

This RealSense with ROS 2 Sample Application can be run using two different types of RealSense cameras. The next section explains how to run this sample application using an RealSense camera connected through USB (for example, RealSense camera D435i). The subsequent section focuses on an RealSense Depth Camera D457.

Note: Currently USB cameras are the only supported cameras.

Prerequisites

Complete the Getting Started guide before continuing.

Install the RealSense ROS 2 Sample Application

1. Download and install the RealSense camera with ROS 2 sample application:

   Jazzy

   sudo apt-get install -y ros-jazzy-realsense2-tutorial-demo
   

   Humble

   sudo apt-get install -y ros-humble-realsense2-tutorial-demo
   

2. Run find_cameras.sh to detect the connected camera type:

   /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/share/realsense2_tutorial/scripts/find_cameras.sh
   

Using RealSense camera connected through USB

1. Connect an RealSense camera (for example, RealSense D435i) to the host, through USB.

2. Run the RealSense camera with ROS 2 sample application, passing the camera_type value reported by find_cameras.sh (it defaults to usb):

   ros2 launch realsense2_tutorial realsense2_tutorial.launch.py camera_type:=usb
   

   Expected output: The image from the RealSense camera is displayed in rviz2, on the bottom left side.

   

3. To close this, do the following:

   • Type Ctrl-c in the terminal where the tutorial was run.

Using RealSense Depth Camera D457 over GMSL

Connect the RealSense Depth Camera D457 to a GMSL-enabled platform, then power on the target.

Note: Select the “MIPI” mode of the RealSense Depth Camera D457 by moving the select switch on the camera to “M”, as shown in the below picture:

Follow the GMSL Cameras guide to configure the BIOS, install the GMSL driver, and bind the RealSense D457 camera (the RealSense tab of the “Bind GMSL camera” step) before continuing.

Run the RealSense camera with ROS 2 sample application

1. Run the RealSense camera with ROS 2 sample application, passing the camera_type value reported by find_cameras.sh:

   ros2 launch realsense2_tutorial realsense2_tutorial.launch.py camera_type:=gmsl
   

   Expected output: The image from the RealSense camera is displayed in rviz2, on the bottom left side.

   

2. To close this, do the following:

   • Type Ctrl-c in the terminal where the tutorial was run.