Compatibility of Axis M5526-E with ROS2 Driver and Recommendations for Similar Models

[dlbbgo]

Hi,
Thank you for developing the drivers.
I was working on a M5526-E Axis camera and I was trying to launch the camera using your humble-devel branch (ros2 env setup). There were some questions I had when I was using the repo:

1. I am launching the camera using ros2 humble environment by command "ros2 launch axis_camera axis_camera.launch hostname:=192.168.0.90" and it shows error below. When I open this URL, it requires me username and password to log in, and I don't know what is this
   [axis_camera_node-1] [WARN] [1744329569.957707695] [axis_node]: Error opening URL http://192.168.0.90:80/mjpg/video.mjpg fps=20&resolution=640x480&camera=1; possible timeout. Looping until camera appears Apparently Axis ROS2 node is trying to connect to the camera via HTTP using the Motion JPEG (MJPEG) streaming URL.

2. when I launch the camera, I print the ros2 topic list as below
   /autofocus
   /autoiris
   /brightness
   /camera_info
   /focus
   /image_raw/compressed
   /iris
   but when I echo them and check the frequency of them, it does not have any response, which means the image is not published successfully, do you know why it is not publishing?

3. Also the topics show /image_raw/compressed is published, but there is only compressed image, instead of original image, is there any way I can get raw image data that is not compressed?

I found in the branch readme that the driver has been tested primarily with the Axis Q62 and Axis Q198-LE series, I'm curious that is the M5526-E model supported by the current ROS2 driver? If it is not, could you recommend other Axis camera models that are compatible with the ROS2 driver within a comparable price range(Since the Q198-LE is expensive and the Q62 series seems outdated)?

Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

Best regards,
Bo

[civerachb-cpr]

I don't recall if I've tested on the M5526 specifically, but the driver has been successfully used on a variety of fixed and PTZ Axis dome cameras; they all use the same HTTP-based API, so the driver is supported pretty widely across models.

I am launching the camera using ros2 humble environment by command ros2 launch axis_camera axis_camera.launch hostname:=192.168.0.90 and it shows error below. When I open this URL, it requires me username and password to log in

New Axis cameras ship with a default username and password, as described here: https://faq.axis.com/s/article/default-username-and-password-for-axis-edge-device. You can log into the camera's web interface to add additional users, change the password, etc...

I don't know what is this [axis_camera_node-1] [WARN] [1744329569.957707695] [axis_node]: Error opening URL [http://192.168.0.90:80/mjpg/video.mjpg](http://192.168.0.90/mjpg/video.mjpg) fps=20&resolution=640x480&camera=1; possible timeout. Looping until camera appears. Apparently Axis ROS2 node is trying to connect to the camera via HTTP using the Motion JPEG (MJPEG) streaming URL.

You are correct: the ROS 2 node interacts with the camera via the HTTP interface and pulls each frame from the camera's MJPG stream and republishes them as a ROS topic.

but when I echo them and check the frequency of them, it does not have any response, which means the image is not published successfully, do you know why it is not publishing?

It's likely not publishing because you aren't supplying the password & username when you start the driver.

Also the topics show /image_raw/compressed is published, but there is only compressed image, instead of original image, is there any way I can get raw image data that is not compressed?

Because the node is pulling the data from the MJPG stream it's already compressed at the source. This method was chosen to reduce latency between the Axis camera's stream and the ROS topic. The additional processing needed to decompress the image and then publish it as an uncompressed ROS image topic adds a fair bit of latency, making the camera more difficult to use in dynamic environments (e.g. as a teleop assist camera).