usb_cam
- Software
- Perception
- Driver or SDK
A ROS 2 driver that publishes images from V4L USB cameras as ROS topics. It is built on V4L devices rather than generic UVC.
Made by ROS device drivers.
Source on GitHub: github.com/ros-drivers/usb_cam (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 772b25f (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- BSD-3-Clause (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (BSD-3-Clause) at commit 772b25f (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Runs a usb_cam_node that streams frames from a V4L USB camera into ROS 2.
- Can be installed from binaries with apt or built from source with colcon.
- Parameters are set through a YAML params file, command-line arguments, or a launch file.
- Supports multiple cameras at once by remapping the namespace of each node.
- Reports the formats a connected device supports and lets you pick one with the pixel_format parameter.
- Supports read, mmap and userptr IO methods, and publishes compressed topics when image_transport_plugins is installed.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 772b25f.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Hardware it needs, as the project states it
- A V4L USB camera and a supported ROS 2 distro on Linux.
- How to start
- The project's website (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Maintained: a commit in the last 12 months
- Newest commit
- 26 Feb 2026 on main
- Latest release
- 0.8.1 (1 May 2024)
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots on Robotheca that use it
No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.
Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.