# mavlink-camera-manager
**Repository Path**: mavlink/mavlink-camera-manager
## Basic Information
- **Project Name**: mavlink-camera-manager
- **Description**: No description available
- **Primary Language**: Unknown
- **License**: MIT
- **Default Branch**: master
- **Homepage**: None
- **GVP Project**: No
## Statistics
- **Stars**: 0
- **Forks**: 0
- **Created**: 2024-08-26
- **Last Updated**: 2024-08-27
## Categories & Tags
**Categories**: Uncategorized
**Tags**: None
## README
Mavlink Camera Manager
An extensible cross-platform camera server built on top of GStreamer and Rust-MAVLink
---
[](https://github.com/mavlink/mavlink-camera-manager/actions)
[](https://crates.io/crates/mavlink-camera-manager)
[](https://crates.io/crates/mavlink-camera-manager)
[](https://docs.rs/mavlink-camera-manager)
## Key Features
- Create and manage streams:
- from local devices, like most USB cameras (using video4linux)
- from remote devices, like most IP cameras
- with supported encodings: H264, MJPG, Raw (YUYV)
- REST API for full control over streams and easy integrations
- With Swagger UI always available for easy development ([What is this?](https://swagger.io/tools/swagger-ui/))
- Configure video4linux camera controls, like brightness, saturation, etc.
- SDP files available, allowing easy access from video players like [VLC](https://www.videolan.org/)
- Redirect 3rd party streams, advertising them via MAVLink protocol
- MAVLink protocol using [rust-mavlink](https://github.com/mavlink/rust-mavlink):
- Work with multiple cameras
- Interface video4linux camera controls
- WebRTC-ready, for modern control stations, available from any H264 source.
- Remember configured streams
- Rotated logs with configurable path and verbosity level
- Generate thumbnails/snapshots for streams from local devices
- Configurable via CLI arguments
- Cross-platform, deployed for x64 and armv7 Linux
## Table of Contents
- [Key Features](#key-features)
- [Table of Contents](#table-of-contents)
- [How to use it](#how-to-use-it)
- [1. Downloading](#1-downloading)
- [2. Installing](#2-installing)
- [3. Running](#3-running)
- [Quick test guide](#quick-test-guide)
- [Receiving a stream from a MAVLink ground control station like QGroundControl](#receiving-a-stream-from-a-mavlink-ground-control-stations-like-qgroundcontrol)
- [Receiving a stream from a GStreamer pipeline](#receiving-a-stream-from-a-gstreamer-pipeline)
- [How to build it](#how-to-build-it)
- [License](#license)
- [Project origins](#project-origins)
## How to use it
### 1. Downloading
Download the mavlink-camera-manager binary for your architecture from our [releases](https://github.com/mavlink/mavlink-camera-manager/releases), or build it from sources as [described here](#how-to-build-it)
### 2. Installing
- First, install the required runtime dependencies (assuming a Ubuntu-based distro):
```Bash
sudo apt update -y && \
sudo apt install -y --no-install-recommends \
libgstreamer1.0-0 \
libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 \
libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 \
libgstrtspserver-1.0-0 \
gstreamer1.0-x \
gstreamer1.0-nice
```
_note: We recommend GStreamer `1.24.0` or above. Previous versions have thread leaks when using WebRTC. You can check it by running `gst-launch-1.0 --version`._
- Extract the zip
- optionally, put the folder to your Linux PATH
### 3. Running
After [the installation](#2-installing), the binary can be run by calling it from the terminal, as simple as:
```Bash
mavlink-camera-manager --mavlink=tcpout:0.0.0.0:14000 --verbose
```
At this point, the API should be ready. By default, it's accessible from any computer in the same network at port `6020`, but it is customizable using the `--rest-server` CLI argument.
For more information about the CLI arguments, `mavlink-camera-manager --help` will give a list of accepted parameters for your version.
- Along with the REST API, a simple management interface is available at http://localhost:6020, in which streams can be created and managed:
- For developers, the Swagger UI with documentation for the entire REST API can be found at http://localhost:6020/docs
## Quick test guide
The short clip below shows how an H264 UDP stream can be configured using the management interface, and how it can be accessed as a WebRTC stream.
#### Receiving a stream from a MAVLink ground control station like QGroundControl
The video should automatically popup if you are using any modern GCS, like QGroundControl, that has support for MAVLink camera messages.
1. Start `mavlink-camera-manager`
2. Start `mavproxy` or `sim_vehicle` with a **TCP server** at `5777` (mavlink-camera-manager's default can be changed via the CLI argument `--mavlink`)
3. Open your Ground Control Station
4. Done
#### Receiving a stream from a GStreamer pipeline
1. Start `mavlink-camera-manager`
2. Run the following pipeline:
- If **RTSP** (any encoding):
```Bash
gstreamer-launch-1.0 rtspsrc location=$RTSP_ADDR latency=0 \
! decodebin
! fpsdisplaysink sync=false
```
- If **UDP** (H264 only):
```Bash
gstreamer-launch-1.0 udpsrc port=$PORT \
! application/x-rtp,payload=96 \
! rtph264depay \
! avdec_h264 discard-corrupted-frames=true \
! videoconvert
! fpsdisplaysink sync=false
```
## How to build it
_This section assumes a Ubuntu 24.04, adaptation will be necessary for other distros._
1. Install the development dependencies:
```Bash
sudo apt update -y &&\
sudo apt install -y --no-install-recommends \
libunwind-dev \
libclang-dev \
pkg-config \
build-essential \
curl \
gnupg \
ca-certificates \
git \
libmount-dev \
libsepol-dev \
libselinux1-dev \
libglib2.0-dev \
libgudev-1.0-dev \
gstreamer1.0-tools \
gstreamer1.0-nice \
libgstreamer1.0-dev \
libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-dev \
libgstrtspserver-1.0-dev
```
2. Install cargo if not available ([official instructions here](https://rustup.rs/))
3. Install NodeJS greater or equal to 19 ([official instructions here](https://github.com/nodesource/distributions#installation-instructions)), and the latest Yarn ([official instructions here](https://classic.yarnpkg.com/lang/en/docs/install/#debian-stable)), as shown below:
```Bash
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key \
| sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nodesource.gpg &&\
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_20.x nodistro main" \
| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list &&\
curl -fsSL https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg \
| sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/yarnkey.gpg &&\
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/yarnkey.gpg] https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian stable main" \
| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list &&\
sudo apt-get update -y &&\
sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
nodejs \
yarn
```
4. Clone this repository and enter it
```Bash
git clone https://github.com/mavlink/mavlink-camera-manager.git &&\
cd mavlink-camera-manager
```
5. Build it with cargo:
```Bash
cargo build --release
```
_note: If the compilation fails to find one of these packages, make sure that they are visible for `pkg-config`, which may be necessary to set `PKG_CONFIG_PATH` environment variable._
## License
This project is licensed under the [MIT License](/LICENSE).
## Project origins
The Mavlink Camera Manager project originated as a personal experiment by [@patrickelectric](github.com/patrickelectric/), driven by the need to address a critical challenge in remotely operated vehicles – effectively managing and providing camera streams to the topside computer. At the time, there was a noticeable absence of open-source alternatives, which motivated the project's inception.
Over time, the project gained recognition and was officially embraced by [**Blue Robotics**](https://github.com/bluerobotics) as a core development effort. It became an integral part of their operating system, BlueOS, and was widely distributed worldwide. The adoption of the Mavlink Camera Manager by Blue Robotics served as a testament to its capabilities and value.
Due to increasing interest from other developers and integrators, the project was transferred to the [**MAVLink organization**](https://github.com/mavlink) on May 25, 2023.