BaslerCameraAdapter

Provides a Python-based web-server REST API to connect to a Basler camera (using PyPylon)

It uses FastAPI to spin up a minimal web server that wraps the Python-package pypylon in a web-api. (This again wraps the Pylon Camera Software Suite into a Python-package.)

The new sever can be packaged as a virtual (Docker) container. Find released images on DockerHub under https://hub.docker.com/r/maxscw/basler-camera-adapter. The project also provides a frontend based on Python's streamlit (images are not published at docker hub.)

Structure

The repository is structured as follows:

BaslerCameraAdapter
+-- docs <- auxiliary files for documentation (basically screenshots)
|-- BaslerCamera.py <- python code to interact with a Basler camera
|-- BaslerCameraAdapter.Dockerfile  <- Dockerfile for camera service (api)
|-- BaslerCameraThread.py  <- enables for continuous image acqusition by camera threading
|-- DataModels.py  <- pydantic data models
|-- Frontend.Dockerfile  <- Dockerfile for frontend
|-- LICENSE
|-- README.md
|-- app.py  <- streamlit server for the frontend
|-- docker-compose.yml  <- exemplatory docker-compose call
|-- main.py  <- fastAPI server to communicate with the Basler camera
|-- requirements.txt  <- pip requirements for api
|-- requirements_frontend.txt  <- pip requirements for frontend
|-- utils.py  <- helper functions that provide the ability to configure the server
|-- utils_fastapi.py <- wrapper functions that provide a standardized interface for fastapi

Configuration

The default values to interact with a camera are configurable at startup by the following environment variables:

Environment variable	data type	comment
ACQUISITION_MODE	string	in ["SingleFrame", "Continuous"]
CONVERT_TO_FORMAT	string	in ["RGB", "BGR", "Mono", "null"]
DESTINATION_IP_ADDRESS	string
DESTINATION_PORT	integer	in [0, 653535]
EXPOSURE_TIME	integer	> 500; in micro seconds
FASTAPI_ROOT_PATH	string
FRAMES_PER_SECOND	integer	for continuous acquisition only
IMAGE_FORMAT	string
IMAGE_QUALITY	integer	in [10, 100]; in percent
IMAGE_ROI_LEFT	integer / flot	region of interest, left bound. In pixels or image fraction
IMAGE_ROI_TOP	integer / float	region of interest, upper bound. In pixels or image fraction
IMAGE_ROI_RIGHT	integer / float	region of interest, right bound. In pixels or image fraction
IMAGE_ROI_BOTTOM	integer / float	region of interest, lower bound. In pixels or image fraction
IMAGE_ROTATION_ANGLE	float
IMAGE_ROTATION_EXPAND	bool
IP_ADDRESS	string
LOG_LEVEL	string	in ["DEBUG", "INFO", "WARNING", "ERROR", "FATAL"]
PIXEL_TYPE	string	see https://docs.baslerweb.com/pylonapi/net/T_Basler_Pylon_PixelType
PREFIX	string	prefix of the environment variables
SERIAL_NUMBER	integer
SSL_CERTIFICATE	string
SSL_KEYFILE	string
SUBNET_MASK	string
TEST_IMAGE	string	Path to image(s) that should be returned for emulated cameras
TIMEOUT_MS	integer	> 200; in milli seconds
TRANSMISSION_TYPE	string	in ["Unicast", "Multicast", "Broadcast"]

Note: The configuration is done once when loading the data models (the module DataModels.py), i.e. at startup of the uvicorn server.

Usage

The default entrypoint (/) provides basic information but rather just assures that the server is up.

See docs (endpoint /docs) for details. This endpoint is the charm of FastAPI.

The documentation is automatically created with Swagger and provides and overview of all available endpoints as well as the ability to try them out with a convenient interface.

The frontend provides a nicer interface organizing the settings of the api in groups and offers the functionality to save images.

Installation

Python

python ./main.py

or use uvicorn directly (always assuming that all package requirements.txt are installed)

uvicorn main:app --host=0.0.0.0 --port=5051

For the frontend it is

streamlit run ./app.py

Docker

Use a virtualization engine like docker or podman:

docker build --tag=camera-adapter -f BaslerCameraAdapter.Dockerfile .

or the corresponding compose plugins on the example file (docker-compose.yml):

docker compose up -d

The docker-compose file starts the frontend, too. See example file for configuration options via environment variables.

Acknowledgments / Disclaimer

This project is no official project of Basler. It relies on the official pypylon package which is available under the BSD 3-Clause License.

Author

• max-scw

Status

active