Zed publish_pose_cov not creating pose_with_covariance topic

rishikandimalla · February 5, 2026, 8:36am

Hi, I am trying to publish a pose_with_covariance to use with an EKF node.

I set the publish_pose_cov option to true but no topic for pose with covariance shows up

I tried spatial_memory := true

I also tried setting it manually in the yaml in the wrapper and rebuilding, but that caused running the camera to fail

ros2 launch zed_wrapper zed_camera.launch.py \ publish_pose_cov:=true \ camera_model:=zed2i \ publish_map_tf:=false \ publish_tf:=true \ res:=HD720 \ depth_mode:=PERFORMANCE \ camera_fps:=30 \ colorize_depth:=false \ color_enhancing:=false \ pos_tracking_enabled:=true \ pos_tracking_mode:=“GEN_1” \ area_memory:=false \ sensors_image_sync:=true

Myzhar · February 5, 2026, 5:06pm

Hi @rishikandimalla
Welcome to the Stereolabs Community.

The set of arguments that you are using with the launch file are not valid.

You can use this command to retrieve a set of available launch arguments:
ros2 launch zed_wrapper zed_camera.launch.py -s

To enable the plublishing of the pose with covariance topic you must modify the common_stereo.yaml configuration file:

github.com/stereolabs/zed-ros2-wrapper

zed_wrapper/config/common_stereo.yaml

master


      
              set_gravity_as_origin: true # If 'true' align the positional tracking world to imu gravity measurement. Keep the yaw from the user initial pose.
              floor_alignment: false # Enable to automatically calculate camera/floor offset
              initial_base_pose: [0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0] # Initial position of the `camera_link` frame in the map -> [X, Y, Z, R, P, Y]
              path_pub_rate: 2.0 # [DYNAMIC] - Camera trajectory publishing frequency
              path_max_count: -1 # use '-1' for unlimited path size
              two_d_mode: false # Force navigation on a plane. If true the Z value will be fixed to 'fixed_z_value', roll and pitch to zero
              fixed_z_value: 0.0 # Value to be used for Z coordinate if `two_d_mode` is true
              transform_time_offset: 0.0 # The value added to the timestamp of `map->odom` and `odom->camera_link` transform being generated
              reset_pose_with_svo_loop: true # Reset the camera pose the `initial_base_pose` when the SVO loop is enabled and the SVO playback reaches the end of the file.
              publish_odom_pose: true # Advertise the odometry and pose topics that are published only if a node subscribes to them
              publish_pose_cov: false # Advertise the pose with covariance topic that is published only if a node subscribes to it
              publish_cam_path: false # Advertise the camera odometry and pose path topics that are published only if a node subscribes to them
          
          gnss_fusion:
              gnss_fusion_enabled: false # fuse 'sensor_msg/NavSatFix' message information into pose data
              gnss_fix_topic: '/fix' # Name of the GNSS topic of type NavSatFix to subscribe [Default: '/gps/fix']
              gnss_zero_altitude: false # Set to `true` to ignore GNSS altitude information
              h_covariance_mul: 1.0 # Multiplier factor to be applied to horizontal covariance of the received fix (plane X/Y)
              v_covariance_mul: 1.0 # Multiplier factor to be applied to vertical covariance of the received fix (Z axis)
              publish_utm_tf: true # Publish `utm` -> `map` TF
              broadcast_utm_transform_as_parent_frame: false # if 'true' publish `utm` -> `map` TF, otherwise `map` -> `utm`

I recommend you read the ZED ROS2 Wrapper documentation to learn the best practices to use it: