Blue Robotics Low Light USB Cameras - LoCO-AUV/loco_config GitHub Wiki

These cameras are the cheapest, simplest option for which LoCO has currently been configured. Only $99 each (at time of writing) from Blue Robotics, they work well underwater and in low light, and are low-impact on the computation end.

The only major issue with these cameras is that they are unsynchronizable (to our knowledge). They use libuvc mass transfer drivers, which makes synchronizing them through software or hardware impossible. Thus, if you need a synchronized stereo pair, these cameras are not the correct option, but if you want cheap, high quality monocular vision, they are a great option.

Placing these cameras is a simple task. First, attach the camera to its mounting part with four small M2 self-tapping screws. There are four holes for the screws to screw into on the mount, pictured below.

You'll later attach the camera mount to the MDF (see the Right and Left Enclosure Assembly pages). The USB cables which come with cameras are not long enough to reach the RPI or TX2, so you will either need to fabricate your own cables, or add extenders. At time of writing, we have right-angled USB extenders in use to connect the cameras to the computers, but fabricating your own cable should be relatively straightforward, as these cameras only use USB2.

Once the cameras are connected, they should automatically work with the computer's software, as libuvc is likely already installed. In order to make them work with ROS, you will need to install the ROS libuvc driver. You'll need to use a launch file to run the camera using libuvc_camera, an example of this launch file is found in the loco_launch package.