pylon Open Source Projects

NEW: pypylon or Basler‘s new pylon Camera Software Suite interface for Python

pypylon is Basler’s new pylon Camera Software Suite interface for interfacing Basler cameras with the programming language Python. pypylon is an open source project hosted on https://github.com/basler/pypylon.

With pypylon, Basler is making a camera API available as an open source project for the first time. This provides maximum flexibility for users who can now modify and build pypylon according to their specific individual needs. With this project, Basler is encouraging the community to get involved with their own creative ideas and actively take part in further developing pypyplon.

Why use pypylon?

Python is a dynamic, object-oriented and multipurpose programming language designed to be quick to understand, learn and use. The syntax in Python helps programmers do coding in fewer steps, as compared to Java, VB, C, C++ or C#. Python's extensive library of open-source image processing libraries (e.g. Open CV), data analysis tools, web frameworks, and testing instruments makes its ecosystem one of the largest of any programming community.

pypylon is a wrapper interface for the powerful Basler pylon Camera Software Suite that allows both new and experienced Python programmers to easily develop applications and test Basler cameras without setting up a complex development environment. This significantly speeds up the camera evaluation process, increases the programmer’s productivity and decreases the total project costs.

System requirements

• Windows, Linux x86 or Linux ARM
• Latest version of the Basler pylon 5 Camera Software Suite
• Python 3.4 or newer (older Python versions starting with Python 2.7 may also work fine, but are not explicitly tested or recommended)
• Latest pypylon version

NEW: pylon Camera Driver for Robot Operating System (ROS)

The pylon Camera Driver for Robot Operating System (ROS) is an open source project that allows Basler GigE Vision and USB3 Vision cameras to be used in robotics applications.

ROS is an all-open-source framework of software libraries and tools. The framework supports the building of various robot applications. ROS provides the development tools, algorithms and drivers for a variety of robotics platform projects. ROS is able to run a large number of executables in parallel and let them exchange data synchronously or asynchronously. In practice, the data are generally sensor queries whose resulting data can be processed to cause robot actions.

Sensors used in robotics are single information and array detectors. In addition, industrial cameras are also increasingly used for robotics applications.

To allow Basler’s GigE Vision and USB3 Vision cameras to work within the ROS framework, the company Magazino developed its own proprietary "pylon_camera" ROS package and has released it together with Basler. It is available for free download under a BSD license at GitHub.

Technology:

• Basler GigE Vision and USB3 Vision cameras
• ROS Robot Operating System, e.g. ROS Kinetic Kame or ROS Indigo Igloo
• Basler pylon Camera Software Suite for Linux x86 or Linux ARM
• "pylon_camera" ROS package

For more information on interfacing Basler GigE Vision and USB3 Vision cameras with ROS using the "pylon_camera" ROS package, refer to the Application Notes “Interfacing Basler Cameras with ROS”.

Our Success Story "Goods Logistics for Industry 4.0 Using the TORU Picking Robot and Basler ace Camera" provides more details on how the robot TORU uses the Basler ace camera and its pylon ROS package to master tricky logistics tasks.