webvideoserver - HTTP Streaming of ROS Topics in Multiple Formats

February 19, 2026 · View on GitHub

This node provides HTTP streaming of ROS topics in various formats, making it easy to view robot camera feeds and other 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 streams
Query snapshots of image topics in multiple formats:
- JPEG
- PNG
- ROS compressed image
Plugin-based architecture for easy addition of new streaming formats
Adjustable quality, size, and other streaming parameters
Web interface to browse available image topics
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 streamable ROS topics
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
`type`	string	"jpeg"	"jpeg", "png", "ros_compressed"	Snapshot image format
`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

Stop an Active Stream

To stop one or more active streams from the server side (e.g. when a UI component unmounts), use the /shutdown endpoint:

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

This closes all active streams for the given topic. An optional client_id parameter scopes the shutdown to a single named connection:

http://localhost:8080/shutdown?topic=/camera/image_raw&client_id=my-ui

To associate a stream with a client_id, pass it when opening the stream:

http://localhost:8080/stream?topic=/camera/image_raw&client_id=my-ui

The response is plain text in the form stopped=<count>, where <count> is the number of streams that were stopped. Returns 400 Bad Request if topic is omitted.

URL Parameters for Shutdown

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`topic`	string	(required)	The ROS topic whose streams should be stopped
`client_id`	string	(none)	If provided, only the stream with this client_id is stopped