To improve their autonomous robot soccer capabilities, the Delft Mercurians, a TU Delft team in the Robotics Student Association of Delft, joined forces with GeT Cameras. The RoboCup Soccer League is where the Delft Mercurians team plays. They have been together since 2022. In their field test, two industrial cameras from GeT Cameras were installed to help them perform better during the RoboCup competition. The student team used two SONY IMX273 sensor -equipped high-speed MER2-160-75GC-P cameras.

The RoboCup Competition

The RoboCup is a global robotics competition where teams compete in a variety of tasks to advance research and innovation in robotics and artificial intelligence. The RoboCup Small-sized Soccer League, in which the Delft Mercurians squad plays against student teams worldwide, is their main focus. The students want to build autonomous robots that can play soccer. The competition is held at a different site each year. The international student team intends to participate in the RoboCup competition in Eindhoven in 2024 with a total of 24 team members.

Each robot's mechanical components have to meet the standards established by the competition committee. In order to guarantee the robots operate smoothly and dependably, numerous electronic components are involved. To truly defeat the opposition teams, software strategies need to be clever and flexible. Due to the wide range of challenges presented by various engineering specialties, the competition is multidisciplinary and extremely difficult.

Sponsorship

Many hours of testing have been done in preparation for the Delft Mercurians team's competition in the RoboCup competition later this year in Eindhoven. GeT Cameras provides two camera setups that are used as a vision system in their internal testing environment. The test field is similar to the real soccer field used for the RoboCup Soccer League in that it has several robots positioned in it. The secret to playing perfect soccer is knowing where each and every robot is on the field.

Two of the cameras are fixed in the test area's ceiling to precisely define a robot's location and motion. When it comes to solving problems with localization, speed, and positioning, industrial cameras are essential. The two high-speed cameras that were chosen have wide-angle M12 lenses, which allow them to capture an area that is roughly 8.1 meters wide.

The team integrated a vision system with the SONY IMX273 sensor-equipped MER2-160-75GC-P cameras. It is important to note that the team's vision system uses a camera from the "Mercury" 2 series. The camera series' Mercury theme and their team name, The Delft "Mercurians," are coincidences.

The vision hardware

The following machine vision components are part of the vision system in the test area:

  • MER2-160-75GC-P: This 1.6MP GigE camera has a C-mount and can record at full resolution at 75 frames per second.
  • LM12-5MP-03MM-F2.8-2-ND1: This 3.3MM M12-mount lens has a 73° horizontal field of view and a non-distortion rate of less than 1%.
  • LADAP-C-TO-M12-V2: This adapter converts C-to M12 mount to M12 lens compatibility for 1.6MP C-mount cameras.

The website displays a list of all computer vision products. With its SONY IMX273 sensor, the MER2-160-75GC-P camera captures 75 1.6MP images per second with little motion blur. The global shutter produces artifact-free image freezing. For this reason, fast-moving objects are captured by global shutter cameras without distortion.

Testing of the camera set-up

The Delft Mercurians were impressed with the cameras when they were delivered, especially when compared to the previous shoddy setup that was in place. With the help of GeT Cameras' documentation, they were able to modify their software and begin testing right away without needing assistance. The team's testing and development have advanced significantly since that initial instance. In addition to the two machine vision cameras, their testing methodology guaranteed a reliable testing solution and excellent preparation for the RoboCup competition.

Report card

Image quality: 

The combination of the camera's high frame rate and resolution pleased the Delft Mercurians team. The pictures showed no distortion even with the lens's short focal length (3.3MM). This has been a key component in determining the robots' locations.

Implementation process: 

The group gives the image quality a five-star rating. They were especially happy with the documentation that GeT Cameras had given them. All the information they required was eventually available, even though not all of the specifications were immediately clear. They were able to obtain images on their first attempt, indicating that they found the SDK to be simple and easy to use.

Durability: 

The team has been using the cameras every day since obtaining them. They value the cameras' dependability and have never received any error messages or other issues.

Support:

The GeT Cameras group has been very beneficial. Everything went according to plan right from the beginning, from helping the students choose their hardware to providing the necessary supplies.

Please give a brief description of your vision project if you require help choosing the appropriate hardware for your vision application. We will be pleased to assist you in locating the most excellent and reasonably priced vision setup.

For the most recent information on the student team's accomplishments, visit their website or follow Delft Mercurians on LinkedIn by clicking this link. You can click on this link to find out more about the Robotics Student Association (RSA).