web_video_server

HTTP Streaming of ROS Image Topics in Multiple Formats

README

web_video_server - HTTP Streaming of ROS Image Topics in Multiple Formats

This node provides HTTP streaming of ROS image topics in various formats, making it easy to view robot camera feeds and other image topics in a web browser without requiring special plugins or extensions.

Features

  • Stream ROS image topics over HTTP in multiple formats:

    • MJPEG (Motion JPEG)

    • VP8 (WebM)

    • VP9 (WebM)

    • H264 (MP4)

    • PNG streams

    • ROS compressed image topics

  • Adjustable quality, size, and other streaming parameters

  • Web interface to browse available image topics

  • Single image snapshot capability

  • Support for different QoS profiles in ROS 2

Installation

Dependencies

  • ROS (Noetic) or ROS 2 (Humble+)

  • OpenCV

  • FFmpeg/libav

  • Boost

  • async_web_server_cpp

Installing packages

For newer ROS2 distributions (humble, jazzy, rolling) it is possible to install web_video_server as a package:

sudo apt install ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-web-video-server

Building from Source

Create a ROS workspace if you don’t have one:

mkdir -p ~/ros_ws/src
cd ~/ros_ws/src

Clone this repository:

# ROS 2
git clone https://github.com/RobotWebTools/web_video_server.git
# ROS 1
git clone https://github.com/RobotWebTools/web_video_server.git -b ros1

Install dependencies with rosdep:

cd ~/ros_ws
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src -i

Build the package and source your workspace:

colcon build --packages-select web_video_server
source install/setup.bash

Usage

Starting the Server

# ROS 1
rosrun web_video_server web_video_server

# ROS 2
ros2 run web_video_server web_video_server

Configuration

Server Configuration Parameters

Parameter

Type

Default

Possible Values

Description

port

int

8080

Any valid port number

HTTP server port

address

string

“0.0.0.0”

Any valid IP address

HTTP server address (0.0.0.0 allows external connections)

server_threads

int

1

1+

Number of server threads for handling HTTP requests

ros_threads

int

2

1+

Number of threads for ROS message handling

verbose

bool

false

true, false

Enable verbose logging

default_stream_type

string

“mjpeg”

“mjpeg”, “vp8”, “vp9”, “h264”, “png”, “ros_compressed”

Default format for video streams

publish_rate

double

-1.0

-1.0 or positive value

Rate for republishing images (-1.0 means no republishing)
Running with Custom Parameters

You can configure the server by passing parameters via the command line:

# ROS 1
rosrun web_video_server web_video_server _port:=8081 _address:=localhost _server_threads:=4

# ROS 2
ros2 run web_video_server web_video_server --ros-args -p port:=8081 -p address:=localhost -p server_threads:=4

View Available Streams

http://localhost:8080/

The interface allows quick navigation between different topics and formats without having to manually construct URLs.

This page displays:

  • All available ROS image topics currently being published

  • Direct links to view each topic in different formats:

    • Web page with streaming image

    • Direct stream

    • Single image snapshot

Stream an Image Topic

There are two ways to stream the Image, as a HTML page via

http://localhost:8080/stream_viewer?topic=/camera/image_raw

or as a HTTP multipart stream on

http://localhost:8080/stream?topic=/camera/image_raw
URL Parameters for Streaming

The following parameters can be added to the stream URL:

Parameter

Type

Default

Possible Values

Description

topic

string

(required)

Any valid ROS image topic

The ROS image topic to stream

type

string

“mjpeg”

“mjpeg”, “vp8”, “vp9”, “h264”, “png”, “ros_compressed”

Stream format

width

int

0

0+

Width of output stream (0 = original width)

height

int

0

0+

Height of output stream (0 = original height)

quality

int

95

1-100

Quality for MJPEG and PNG streams

bitrate

int

100000

Positive integer

Bitrate for H264/VP8/VP9 streams in bits/second

invert

flag

not present

present/not present

Invert image when parameter is present

default_transport

string

“raw”

“raw”, “compressed”, “theora”

Image transport to use

qos_profile

string

“default”

“default”, “system_default”, “sensor_data”, “services_default”

QoS profile for ROS 2 subscribers

Examples:

# Stream an MJPEG at 640x480 with 90% quality
http://localhost:8080/stream?topic=/camera/image_raw&type=mjpeg&width=640&height=480&quality=90

# Stream H264 with higher bitrate
http://localhost:8080/stream?topic=/camera/image_raw&type=h264&bitrate=500000

# Stream with inverted image (rotated 180°)
http://localhost:8080/stream?topic=/camera/image_raw&invert

Get a Snapshot

It is also possible to get a single image snapshot

http://localhost:8080/snapshot?topic=/camera/image_raw
URL Parameters for Snapshot

Parameter

Type

Default

Possible Values

Description

topic

string

(required)

Any valid ROS image topic

The ROS image topic to stream

width

int

0

0+

Width of output picture (0 = original width)

height

int

0

0+

Height of output picture (0 = original height)

quality

int

95

1-100

Quality for JPEG snapshots

invert

flag

not present

present/not present

Invert image when parameter is present

default_transport

string

“raw”

“raw”, “compressed”, “theora”

Image transport to use

qos_profile

string

“default”

“default”, “system_default”, “sensor_data”, “services_default”

QoS profile for ROS 2 subscribers

About

This project is released as part of the Robot Web Tools effort.

License

web_video_server is released with a BSD license. For full terms and conditions, see the LICENSE file.

Authors

See the AUTHORS file for a full list of contributors.