SDF template for cameras

SDFormat (SDF) can be used to create a camera within Flowstate. In the following template, important details are provided in the comments (i.e., <!-- this is a comment -->): i

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<sdf version="1.11">
  <model name="my_camera">
    <link name="camera_link">
      <visual name="camera_visual">
        <geometry>
          <!-- Can be a mesh or primitive shape; this example uses a mesh. -->
          <mesh>
            <uri>relative/path/to/mesh</uri>
          </mesh>
        </geometry>
      </visual>
      <collision name ="camera_collision">
        <geometry>
          <!-- Fill this section with a mesh or primitive shape;
               this is used for motion planning and physics.
               See http://sdformat.org/spec?ver=1.11&elem=geometry for
               available types. -->
        </geometry>
      </collision>
    </link>
    <!-- A link named "sensor_link" is required for this to work in
         the frontend. -->
    <link name="sensor_link">
      <!-- By default, the camera frustum is facing up. If the mesh of your
           camera lens is not facing up, you'll need to update the sensor_link's
           pose to match accordingly. In this example, the mesh lens is rotated
           90 degrees in the y-direction. -->
      <pose>0 0 0 0 1.5708 0</pose>
      <sensor name="camera_sensor" type="camera">
        <!-- Need to rotate sensor so that camera frame conforms to
             Intrinsic's convention (z forward, x right, y down). -->
        <pose>0 0 0 1.57079632679 -1.57079632679 0</pose>
        <update_rate>10.0</update_rate>
        <camera>
          <image>
          <!-- Look at the camera hardware specifications for the camera's
               width and height. -->
            <width>1936</width>
            <height>1216</height>
          </image>
          <lens>
            <intrinsics>
            <!-- These intrinsics will be used for the camera type default
                 config. -->
              <fx>1000</fx>
              <fy>1000</fy>
              <cx>968</cx>
              <cy>608</cy>
            </intrinsics>
          </lens>
        </camera>
      </sensor>
    </link>
    <!-- Required joint that positions the camera and sensor links if
         there are two links representing the visual + collision and sensor
         link. -->
    <joint name="camera_joint" type="fixed">
      <parent>camera_link</parent>
      <child>sensor_link</child>
    </joint>
  </model>
</sdf>

Note: Complex meshes with a large number of polygons will cause slow performance of the simulator when used as collision meshes. We recommend using either a simplified mesh or primitive shapes (e.g., box, sphere, cylinder) for collisions.

For a full example, download this FLIR blackfly zip.

Current limitations

• Only supports one <include> and does not support nested <include>s.
• The zip file used to create the SceneObject must only contain the SDF file and meshes. Zipping the directory that holds these two files will result in an error.