Depth Cameras

Practical

Depth cameras measure the distance from the sensor to every point in the scene, producing a 2.5D representation of the environment. They are essential for obstacle avoidance, manipulation, 3D mapping, and any task requiring spatial understanding beyond what 2D images provide.

Tip

Unlike regular cameras that capture color/intensity, depth cameras answer “how far away is each pixel?” — enabling robots to understand the 3D structure of their environment.

Prerequisites

Cameras General camera concepts and integration

Coordinate Frames Understanding 3D spatial relationships

Three Depth Sensing Technologies

Stereo Vision

Uses two cameras separated by a known baseline to calculate depth via triangulation.

[Left Cam]───baseline───[Right Cam]
     │                       │
     └─────────┬─────────────┘
               │ Disparity Matching
               ▼
          [Depth Map]

How it works: The same point appears at different horizontal positions in each image. This difference (disparity) is inversely proportional to depth.

Pros: Works outdoors, long range, passive operation possible Cons: Needs texture for matching, computationally intensive

Structured Light

Projects a known IR pattern and analyzes its distortion on objects.

[IR Projector]───pattern──►[Object]
                               │
                          distortion
                               │
                     ◄────────[Camera]
                               │
                          triangulation
                               ▼
                          [Depth Map]

How it works: Known patterns (dots, stripes, or coded patterns) deform when hitting surfaces at different depths. A camera captures this distortion and computes depth via triangulation.

Pros: High accuracy at short range, works on textureless surfaces Cons: IR pattern washed out in sunlight, limited range

Time-of-Flight (ToF)

Measures the time for IR light to travel to an object and back.

[Emitter]────IR pulse────►[Object]
    │                         │
    │                    reflection
    │                         │
    └◄────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼ measure time/phase
[Depth Map]

How it works: Emits modulated IR light and measures either phase shift (continuous wave) or direct time delay (pulsed) to calculate distance.

Pros: Fast capture, works in low light, texture-independent Cons: Multipath interference, limited outdoor range

Technology Comparison

Aspect	Stereo	Structured Light	ToF
Range	0.5–20m	0.3–5m	0.2–8m
Accuracy	Medium	High (short range)	Medium
Speed	Medium	Medium	Fast
Outdoor	Good	Poor	Moderate
Texture needed	Yes	No	No
Cost	Low–Medium	Medium	Medium–High

Popular Depth Cameras

Intel RealSense (Active Stereo)

Model	Baseline	Range	Features
D455	95mm	0.4–6m	86° FoV, up to 90fps
D456	95mm	0.4–6m	IP65-rated outdoor
D405	—	0.1–0.5m	Short-range manipulation
D435i	50mm	0.3–3m	Built-in IMU, compact

Stereolabs ZED (Stereo + Neural Depth)

Model	Features
ZED 2i	IP66, 12cm baseline, 0.2–20m, neural depth
ZED SDK 5.1	Isaac ROS NITROS support, 10x lower latency

Orbbec

Model	Technology	Features
Femto Bolt	ToF	Azure Kinect replacement, 120° FoV
Femto Mega	ToF	Built-in compute, PoE support
Gemini 335Lg	Active Stereo	Mobile robot optimized, indoor/outdoor

ROS 2 Integration

Standard Topics

/camera/depth/image_raw      # Depth image (32FC1 meters or 16UC1 mm)
/camera/depth/camera_info    # Calibration parameters
/camera/depth_registered/points  # Colored point cloud
/camera/color/image_raw      # RGB image

Launch Examples

# Intel RealSense with point cloud
ros2 launch realsense2_camera rs_launch.py \
    enable_depth:=true \
    depth_module.profile:=640x480x30 \
    pointcloud.enable:=true

# ZED camera
ros2 launch zed_wrapper zed_camera.launch.py \
    camera_model:=zed2i

# Orbbec Femto Bolt
ros2 launch orbbec_camera femto_bolt.launch.py

Depth Subscriber Example

import rclpy
from rclpy.node import Node
from sensor_msgs.msg import Image
from cv_bridge import CvBridge

class DepthSubscriber(Node):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__('depth_subscriber')
        self.subscription = self.create_subscription(
            Image, '/camera/depth/image_raw',
            self.depth_callback, 10)
        self.bridge = CvBridge()

    def depth_callback(self, msg):
        # Convert to numpy array (meters, 32-bit float)
        depth_image = self.bridge.imgmsg_to_cv2(
            msg, desired_encoding='32FC1')

        # Get depth at center pixel
        h, w = depth_image.shape
        center_depth = depth_image[h // 2, w // 2]
        self.get_logger().info(f'Center depth: {center_depth:.3f}m')

def main():
    rclpy.init()
    node = DepthSubscriber()
    rclpy.spin(node)
    rclpy.shutdown()

Isaac ROS GPU Acceleration

Isaac ROS 3.2 provides GPU-accelerated depth processing:

Package	Purpose
isaac_ros_stereo_image_proc	Disparity computation
isaac_ros_depth_image_proc	Depth to point cloud
isaac_ros_dnn_stereo_depth	DNN-based depth estimation

DNN Stereo Models

ESS (Efficient Semi-Supervised):

• Fast inference for real-time applications
• Outputs disparity + confidence map
• Robust to unseen environments

FoundationStereo (new in Isaac ROS 3.2):

• Transformer-based foundation model
• Zero-shot generalization across scenes
• Uses Depth Anything V2 as feature extractor
• Best Paper Nomination at CVPR 2025

Depth Processing Pipeline

┌─────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌───────────────┐
│   Depth     │ →  │  Undistort   │ →  │   Register    │
│   Sensor    │    │  (calibrate) │    │   to RGB      │
└─────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └───────────────┘
                                              │
                                              ▼
┌─────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌───────────────┐
│  Obstacle   │ ←  │ Point Cloud  │ ←  │   Depth to    │
│  Detection  │    │ (PCL2)       │    │   3D Points   │
└─────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └───────────────┘

Choosing the Right Technology

Use Case	Recommended
Outdoor navigation	Stereo (passive or active)
Indoor manipulation	Structured light or ToF
AMR obstacle avoidance	ToF (fast, compact)
3D scanning	Structured light (high accuracy)
Low-light environments	ToF
Long-range perception	Stereo

Related Terms

Cameras General vision sensors and RGB imaging

LiDAR Alternative 3D sensing via laser scanning

SLAM Uses depth for simultaneous mapping and localization

Sensor Fusion Combining depth with other sensor modalities

Sources

• Intel RealSense D455 — D400 series specifications
• Intel RealSense ROS2 — Official ROS 2 wrapper
• Stereolabs ZED SDK 5.1 — SDK features and NITROS integration
• Orbbec Femto Bolt — ToF camera specifications
• OrbbecSDK ROS2 — Orbbec ROS 2 wrapper
• Isaac ROS DNN Stereo Depth — GPU-accelerated depth estimation
• Isaac ROS FoundationStereo — Foundation model for stereo depth
• LIPS 3D Depth Camera Principles — Technology comparison