The “zed_description” Package

The zed_description package provides the 3D models (URDF/xacro and meshes) of the ZED camera family, used by the ZED ROS 2 Wrapper and the ZED ROS 2 Examples to publish the static TF tree of the camera and to display it in RViz 2. The package is maintained in the zed-ros2-description repository.

Installation

Binary installation

$
sudo apt install ros-<ros2-distro>-zed-description

where <ros2-distro> is your ROS 2 distribution (e.g. humble or jazzy).

Build from source

$
cd ~/ros2_ws/src/
$
git clone https://github.com/stereolabs/zed-ros2-description.git
$
cd ..
$
sudo apt update
$
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
$
colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args=-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
$
source ~/ros2_ws/install/local_setup.bash

Supported camera models

The package ships a mesh and the URDF parameters (baseline, optical offsets) for each supported model. The camera_model argument accepts one of the following values:

zed, zedm, zed2, zed2i, zedx, zedxm, zedxnano, zedxhdr, zedxhdrmini, zedxhdrmax, zedxonegs, zedxones, zedxone4k, zedxonehdr, and virtual (for custom stereo rigs).

Visualizing a camera model

You can preview the 3D model of any supported camera in RViz 2 without starting a ZED node:

$
ros2 launch zed_description zed_viz.launch.py camera_model:=<camera model>

Using the description in your own URDF

The model is generated from a xacro macro (zed_macro.urdf.xacro) that you can include in your own robot description to attach a ZED camera to your platform:

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<xacro:include filename="$(find zed_description)/urdf/zed_macro.urdf.xacro" />
2
3
<xacro:zed_camera name="zed" model="zed2i" enable_gnss="false">
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  <origin xyz="0 0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
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</xacro:zed_camera>

The macro accepts the following arguments:

• name: name of the camera, used as a prefix for all the generated frames (default zed).
• model: camera model, one of the supported values listed above.
• custom_baseline: distance in meters between the left and right optical centers. Only used with model:=virtual to describe a custom stereo rig.
• enable_gnss: if true, adds a gnss_link frame for the GNSS antenna. Used by the Geo Tracking module. The antenna position relative to the camera mount point is set through the gnss_x, gnss_y, and gnss_z arguments.