blackfly_nodelet

Simple ROS driver wrapping the Spinnaker API for Blackfly Cameras.

Setup

Spinnaker

1. Download the Spinnaker SDK from FLIR as per your distribution and architecture (Note: this driver has only been tested on Linux variants)
2. Unzip it and go through the README for installation instructions for your system
3. If Spinnaker is installed in a custom location, you will need to include the path to it in the FindSpinnaker.cmake

Notes

1. This branch is only compatible with Spinnaker 2.x as noted in the table below. Switch to the spinnaker1 branch for Spinnaker 1.x.
   • Ubuntu 20.04:

     Version	amd64
     2.5.0.80	Y
     2.4.0.143	Y
     2.0.0.109	N - Use spinnaker1 branch

2. The machine may need to be rebooted after installing spinnaker
3. Make sure to accept the increase in the usb-fs memory - if this is a small value, the camera may only work at a low frame rate

blackfly_nodelet

mkdir -p catkin_ws/src
git clone git@github.com:ntnu-arl/blackfly_nodelet.git
cd ..
catkin config -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
catkin build blackfly
source devel/setup.bash

Usage

Edit the camera_serial_nums param in the launch/1_camera.launch launchfile and run:

source devel/setup.bash
roslaunch blackfly 1_camera.launch

The image will be published on the topics created according to the camera_names parameter.

Check the launch/2_cameras.launch launchfile for an example of running multiple cameras.

Notes

1. Camera Frame rate may drop if the camera is not connected to a USB3.0 port.
2. If using auto exposure, auto gain, and gamma correction, the camera tends to choose the maximum exposure value.
3. If the framerate is lower than expected, check the usb-fs memory size using

cat /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/usbfs_memory_mb

If this value is < 1024, set it >= 1024 by changing /etc/default/grub from

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash usbcore.usbfs_memory_mb=32768"

and then run

sudo update-grub

and finally restart the system and check that the value has been set correctly using

cat /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/usbfs_memory_mb

4. It is recommended to use a 330 Ohm or lower value resistor to connect the OptoIn to the trigger signal.

Timestamping

Images are timestamped using the End of Exposure event given by the Spinnaker API. When this event occurs, the current ROS time is saved in the device event handler class. The device event handler then queries the camera for its current exposure time. The exposure time is divided by 2, and this time is subtracted from the saved time stamp. This procedure is performed in order to move the image's timestamp to the middle of the camera's exposure.

Dynamic Reconfigure

Set enable_dyn_reconf param in the launch file to true to change the following parameters online:

You can open an issue or contact us for any questions:

• Nikhil Khedekar
• Paolo De Petris
• Frank Mascarich
• Kostas Alexis