Package: whycon
pywhyconPython wrapper for Whycon.Whycon is precise, efficient and low-cost localization systemWhyConis a version of a vision-based localization system that can be used with low-cost web cameras, and achieves millimiter precision with very high performance.
The system is capable of efficient real-time detection and precise position estimation of several circular markers in a video stream.
It can be used both off-line, as a source of ground-truth for robotics experiments, or on-line as a component of robotic systems that require real-time, precise position estimation.WhyConis meant as an alternative to widely used and expensive localization systems. It is fully open-source.WhyCon-origis WhyCon's original, minimalistic version that was supposed to be ROS and openCV independent.DependenciesOpenCVWhycon Core library- see bellowpkconfig- only for module buildingpybind11- only for module buildingnumpyInstallYou have to install the package from youractive python environment.Depending on your environment, you may need to enter something likeconda activate _your_python_environment_name_orworkon _your_python_environment_name_.MakefileCompile and linking module to./bin/whycon.so.(It also compiles theWhycon Core library.)makesetup.py./setup.py install(It calls the make [see above] and installs the whycon package in the current python environment.)Pippip install whyconExamplesExamples are in theusecasesdirectory in therepo on GitHub.show_help.pyIt only tests that the module was installed successfully. It prints the help message of the module.camera_test.pyTurn on the USB webcam and see what it sees.
If Whycon-markers are found in the image, they will be highlighted
and their found properties will be written to the console.autocalibration_test.pyAutomatic calibration of space transformation parameters by monitoring
four WhyCon markers arranged in a square
(with the configured length of its side).web_camera.pyAuxiliary object, camera abstraction.
(Searches for the first unshaded camera.)window.pyAuxiliary object, Screen window abstraction.Whycon core library as a submoduleThe Whycon core library is a git submodule of this repository.If you do not have awhycon_coredirectory in the root directory, entergit submodule init
git submodule updateWhycon Core libraryThe package (pywhycon) is a wrapper of theWhycon core library.For citations of articles, contacts to the original author, please see these pages. You will also find citations of projects that contributed to the development of the Whycon.WhyConA precise, efficient and low-cost localization systemWhyConis a version of a vision-based localization system that can be used with low-cost web cameras, and achieves millimiter precision with very high performance.
The system is capable of efficient real-time detection and precise position estimation of several circular markers in a video stream.
It can be used both off-line, as a source of ground-truth for robotics experiments, or on-line as a component of robotic systems that require real-time, precise position estimation.WhyConis meant as an alternative to widely used and expensive localization systems. It is fully open-source.WhyCon-origis WhyCon's original, minimalistic version that was supposed to be ROS and openCV independent.TheWhyConsystem was developed as a joint project between the University of Buenos Aires, Czech Technical University and University of Lincoln, UK.
The main contributors wereMatias Nitsche,Tom KrajnikandJan Faigl. Each of these contributors maintains a slightly different version of WhyCon.History of the repoThere are many implementations of this idea on GitHub. Because they come from the scientific environment, they are at different stages of development and with different modifications.
The goal of this implementation is to enable the development of the core of this idea as an independent library that can be used by other projects.The basis for this library is the implementation fromhttps://github.com/jiriUlr/whycon-ros.There is a fully functional reproduction of individual marks in the image, as well as their identification (WhyCode).Other significant implementationsWhyCon versionApplicationMain featuresMaintainerWhyCon-origgeneral2D, 3D, ROS, lightweight, autocalibrationTom KrajnikWhyCon-ROSgeneral2D, ROSMatias NitscheSwarmConμ-swarms2D, individual IDs, autocalibrationTom KrajnikCaspa-WhyConUAVsembedded, open HW-SW solutionJan FaiglSocial-cardHRIROS, allows to command a robotTom KrajnikWhere is it described ?WhyConwas first presented on International Conference on Advanced Robotics 2013 [2], later in the Journal of Intelligent and Robotics Systems [1] and finally at the Workshop on Open Source Aerial Robotics during the International Conference on Intelligent Robotic Systems, 2015 [3]. Its early version was also presented at the International Conference of Robotics and Automation, 2013 [4]. An extension of the system, which used a necklace code to add ID's to the tags, achieved a best paper award at the SAC 2017 conference [5].
If you decide to use this software for your research, please citeWhyConusing the one of the references provided in thisbibtexfile.DependenciesopencvHow to build and install####In general
To see a current variable setting of Makefile you can callmake infoIf you want to set a parameter, you can do it as followsmake info USE_OPENCV_FROM_PYTHON=1(make USE_OPENCV_FROM_PYTHON=1)####OpenCv and other (Python for example)
Unfortunately, the current implementation is dependent on OpenCV.
If you expect to use the library with another application/library (such as Python),
you need to use thesame version of the OpenCVlibrary.If the variable USE_OPENCV_FROM_PYTHON = 1 (default is 0)
the makefile tries to find OpenCV, which is in the appropriate version of Python.If you use avirtualPythonenvironment, you mustactivateit during the compilation.(For exampleconda activate <your enviroment>orsource venv/bin/activate, ...)####Compilation and linkingmakeor (for Python, inside of Python enviroment )make USE_OPENCV_FROM_PYTHON=1Installsudo make installUninstallsudo make uninstallProjects that produce this libraryPython wrapper for whycon (vision-based localization system)To Do ListTransfer hidden parameters from code to configurations.Add tests.Remove the dependency on opencv (used mainly for coordinate transformation).ReferencesT. Krajník, M. Nitsche et al.:A Practical Multirobot Localization System.Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems (JINT), 2014. [bibtex].T. Krajník, M. Nitsche et al.:External localization system for mobile robotics.International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), 2013. [bibtex].M. Nitsche, T. Krajník et al.:WhyCon: An Efficent, Marker-based Localization System.IROS Workshop on Open Source Aerial Robotics, 2015. [bibtex].J. Faigl, T. Krajník et al.:Low-cost embedded system for relative localization in robotic swarms.International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2013. [bibtex].P. Lightbody, T. Krajník et al.:A versatile high-performance visual fiducial marker detection system with scalable identity encoding.Symposium on Applied Computing, 2017.[bibtex].AcknowledgementsThe development of this work is currently supported by the Czech Science Foundation project 17-27006YSTRoLL.
In the past, the work was supported by EU within its Seventh Framework Programme project ICT-600623STRANDS.
The Czech Republic and Argentina have given support through projects 7AMB12AR022, ARC/11/11 and 13-18316P.
We sincerely acknowledgeJean Pierre Moreaufor his excellent libraries for numerical analysis that we use in our project.