Intel® RealSense™ Tracking Camera T265 (VIO)

The Intel® RealSense™ Tracking Camera T265 (opens new window) provides odometry information that can be used for VIO, augmenting or replacing other positioning systems on PX4.

TIP

This camera is recommended, and is used in the Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) > Suggested Setup.

Where to Buy

Intel® RealSense™ Tracking Camera T265 (opens new window) (store.intelrealsense.com)

Setup Instructions

At a high level:

• The realsense-ros wrapper (opens new window) provided by Intel should be used to extract the raw data from the camera.
• The camera should be mounted with lenses facing down (default). Be sure to specify the camera orientation by publishing the static transform between the base_link and camera_pose_frame in a ROS launch file, for example:

  <node pkg="tf" type="static_transform_publisher" name="tf_baseLink_cameraPose"
      args="0 0 0 0 1.5708 0 base_link camera_pose_frame 1000"/>
  

  This is a static transform that links the camera ROS frame camera_pose_frame to the MAVROS drone frame base_link.
  • the first three args specify translation x,y,z in metres from the center of the flight controller to the camera. For example, if the camera is 10cm in front of the controller and 4cm up, the first three numbers would be : [0.1, 0, 0.04,...]
  • the next three args specify rotation in radians (yaw, pitch, roll). So [... 0, 1.5708, 0] means pitch down by 90° (facing the ground). Facing straight forward would be [... 0 0 0].
• The camera is sensitive to high-frequency vibrations! It should be soft-mounted with, for example, vibration isolation foam.