The hardware design of a smart camera for the robot soccer environment

Abstract

A powerful smart camera design is proposed for the real time machine vision application of robot soccer. This smart camera was designed for the purpose of replacing an existing, PC based vision and control system developed within The University of Queensland, for the 1998 RoboCup competition. The design takes advantage of recent advances in CMOS image sensor and embedded microprocessor technology. The proposed smart camera design integrates a VGA format active-pixel CMOS image sensor, with a powerful digital signal processor and a programmable PC device controller. The digital signal processor, used in the design, duplicates the image processing functionality exhibited by the original system, which the designed smart camera is intended to replace. Interfaces to a radio transmitter and the end user are provided by the PC device controller. Portions of the designed smart camera have been implemented, and are shown to have worked as expected. The remainder of the smart camera’s design is shown to be valid by theoretical means.