trying this

start_camera.launch.py

@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 import os
 from ament_index_python.packages import get_package_share_directory
 from launch import LaunchDescription
-from launch_ros.actions import Node
+from launch_ros.actions import ComposableNodeContainer
+from launch_ros.descriptions import ComposableNode
 
-#from perspective of cameras
+# From perspective of cameras
 LEFT_CAMERA_NAME = 'left'
 RIGHT_CAMERA_NAME = 'right'
-LEFT_CAMERA_NAMESPACE = 'stereo'
+
-RIGHT_CAMERA_NAMESPACE = 'stereo'
 
 def generate_launch_description():
     config_path = os.path.join(
@@ -16,57 +16,175 @@ def generate_launch_description():
         'blackfly_s.yaml'
     )
 
+    # ── Container 1: Camera Drivers (component_container_mt) ─────────────
+    #
+    # Both cameras share a single process because the FLIR Spinnaker SDK
+    # requires USB3 cameras to negotiate bandwidth within one process.
+    # Using _mt so both capture callbacks can fire on separate threads.
+    #
+    # Topics published (per camera):
+    #   /stereo/{left,right}/image_raw    (sensor_msgs/Image)
+    #   /stereo/{left,right}/camera_info  (sensor_msgs/CameraInfo)
+    camera_container = ComposableNodeContainer(
+        name='camera_container',
+        namespace='',
+        package='rclcpp_components',
+        executable='component_container_mt',
+        composable_node_descriptions=[
+            # ── Left Blackfly S (serial 25282106) ──
+            # namespace='stereo/left' → publishes /stereo/left/image_raw
+            #                                      /stereo/left/camera_info
+            ComposableNode(
+                package='spinnaker_camera_driver',
+                plugin='spinnaker_camera_driver::CameraDriver',
+                name=LEFT_CAMERA_NAME,
+                namespace='stereo/left',
+                parameters=[{
+                    'parameter_file': config_path,
+                    'serial_number': '25282106',
+                    'camera_info_url': 'file:///home/sentry/camera_ws/stereoCal/left.yaml',
+                }],
+                extra_arguments=[{'use_intra_process_comms': True}],
+            ),
+            # ── Right Blackfly S (serial 25235293) ──
+            # namespace='stereo/right' → publishes /stereo/right/image_raw
+            #                                       /stereo/right/camera_info
+            ComposableNode(
+                package='spinnaker_camera_driver',
+                plugin='spinnaker_camera_driver::CameraDriver',
+                name=RIGHT_CAMERA_NAME,
+                namespace='stereo/right',
+                parameters=[{
+                    'parameter_file': config_path,
+                    'serial_number': '25235293',
+                    'camera_info_url': 'file:///home/sentry/camera_ws/stereoCal/right.yaml',
+                }],
+                extra_arguments=[{'use_intra_process_comms': True}],
+            ),
+        ],
+        output='screen',
+    )
+
+    # ── Container 2: Image Processing (component_container_mt) ───────────
+    #
+    # Debayer + Rectify for both cameras. Grouped together so that
+    # debayer→rectify is zero-copy (intra-process) per side, while _mt
+    # lets left and right pipelines run concurrently on different threads.
+    #
+    # Per-side data flow:
+    #   image_raw → DebayerNode → image_mono → RectifyNode → image_rect
+    #                           ↘ image_color (available for other consumers)
+    image_proc_container = ComposableNodeContainer(
+        name='image_proc_container',
+        namespace='',
+        package='rclcpp_components',
+        executable='component_container_mt',
+        composable_node_descriptions=[
+            # ── Left Debayer ──
+            # Subscribes: /stereo/left/image_raw   (default topic, matches camera)
+            # Publishes:  /stereo/left/image_mono   (grayscale debayered)
+            #             /stereo/left/image_color  (color debayered)
+            ComposableNode(
+                package='image_proc',
+                plugin='image_proc::DebayerNode',
+                name='debayer',
+                namespace='stereo/left',
+                extra_arguments=[{'use_intra_process_comms': True}],
+            ),
+            # ── Left Rectify ──
+            # Remap: 'image' → 'image_mono' so it subscribes to debayer output.
+            # image_transport auto-derives camera_info from the image topic's
+            # namespace: /stereo/left/image_mono → /stereo/left/camera_info ✓
+            # Publishes: /stereo/left/image_rect
+            ComposableNode(
+                package='image_proc',
+                plugin='image_proc::RectifyNode',
+                name='rectify_mono',
+                namespace='stereo/left',
+                remappings=[('image', 'image_mono')],
+                extra_arguments=[{'use_intra_process_comms': True}],
+            ),
+            # ── Right Debayer ──
+            # Subscribes: /stereo/right/image_raw
+            # Publishes:  /stereo/right/image_mono, /stereo/right/image_color
+            ComposableNode(
+                package='image_proc',
+                plugin='image_proc::DebayerNode',
+                name='debayer',
+                namespace='stereo/right',
+                extra_arguments=[{'use_intra_process_comms': True}],
+            ),
+            # ── Right Rectify ──
+            # Remap: 'image' → 'image_mono'
+            # Subscribes: /stereo/right/image_mono + /stereo/right/camera_info
+            # Publishes:  /stereo/right/image_rect
+            ComposableNode(
+                package='image_proc',
+                plugin='image_proc::RectifyNode',
+                name='rectify_mono',
+                namespace='stereo/right',
+                remappings=[('image', 'image_mono')],
+                extra_arguments=[{'use_intra_process_comms': True}],
+            ),
+        ],
+        output='screen',
+    )
+
+    # ── Container 3: Stereo Processing (component_container_mt) ──────────
+    #
+    # DisparityNode + PointCloudNode isolated from image processing so the
+    # heavy stereo matching doesn't starve debayer/rectify callbacks.
+    # Zero-copy between disparity → point_cloud within this container.
+    #
+    # Data flow:
+    #   left/image_rect + right/image_rect → DisparityNode → disparity
+    #   disparity + left/image_rect → PointCloudNode → points2
+    stereo_proc_container = ComposableNodeContainer(
+        name='stereo_proc_container',
+        namespace='',
+        package='rclcpp_components',
+        executable='component_container_mt',
+        composable_node_descriptions=[
+            # ── Disparity ──
+            # Subscribes: /stereo/left/image_rect   (from left RectifyNode)
+            #             /stereo/left/camera_info   (from left CameraDriver)
+            #             /stereo/right/image_rect  (from right RectifyNode)
+            #             /stereo/right/camera_info  (from right CameraDriver)
+            # Publishes:  /stereo/disparity          (stereo_msgs/DisparityImage)
+            ComposableNode(
+                package='stereo_image_proc',
+                plugin='stereo_image_proc::DisparityNode',
+                name='disparity_node',
+                namespace='stereo',
+                parameters=[{'approximate_sync': True}],
+                extra_arguments=[{'use_intra_process_comms': True}],
+            ),
+            # ── Point Cloud ──
+            # Remap: left/image_rect_color → left/image_rect because
+            #        RectifyNode publishes 'image_rect', not 'image_rect_color'.
+            # Subscribes: /stereo/left/image_rect   (remapped from left/image_rect_color)
+            #             /stereo/left/camera_info
+            #             /stereo/right/camera_info
+            #             /stereo/disparity          (from DisparityNode — zero-copy)
+            # Publishes:  /stereo/points2            (sensor_msgs/PointCloud2)
+            ComposableNode(
+                package='stereo_image_proc',
+                plugin='stereo_image_proc::PointCloudNode',
+                name='point_cloud_node',
+                namespace='stereo',
+                parameters=[{'approximate_sync': True}],
+                remappings=[
+                    ('left/image_rect_color', 'left/image_rect'),
+                    ('right/image_rect_color', 'right/image_rect'),
+                ],
+                extra_arguments=[{'use_intra_process_comms': True}],
+            ),
+        ],
+        output='screen',
+    )
+
     return LaunchDescription([
-        Node(
+        camera_container,
-            package='spinnaker_camera_driver',
+        image_proc_container,
-            executable='camera_driver_node',
+        stereo_proc_container,
-            name=LEFT_CAMERA_NAME,
-            namespace=LEFT_CAMERA_NAMESPACE,
-            parameters=[{
-                'parameter_file': config_path,
-                'serial_number': '25282106',
-                'camera_info_url': 'file:///home/sentry/camera_ws/stereoCal/left.yaml'
-            }]
-        ),
-
-        Node(
-            package='spinnaker_camera_driver',
-            executable='camera_driver_node',
-            name=RIGHT_CAMERA_NAME,
-            namespace=RIGHT_CAMERA_NAMESPACE,
-            parameters=[{
-                'parameter_file': config_path,
-                'serial_number': '25235293',
-                'camera_info_url': 'file:///home/sentry/camera_ws/stereoCal/right.yaml'
-            }]
-        ),
-        Node(
-            package='image_proc',
-            executable='image_proc',
-            namespace='stereo/left',
-            remappings=[
-                ('image', 'image_raw')
-            ]
-        ),
-        Node(
-            package='image_proc',
-            executable='image_proc',
-            namespace='stereo/right',
-            remappings=[
-                ('image', 'image_raw')
-            ]
-        ),
-
-        Node(
-            package='stereo_image_proc',
-            executable='point_cloud_node',
-            namespace='stereo',
-            parameters=[{'approximate_sync': True}],
-            remappings=[
-                ('left/image_rect_color', 'left/image_rect'),
-                ('right/image_rect_color', 'right/image_rect')
-            ],
-            output='screen'
-        )
-
     ])