  In this technical report, we describe the use of a machine learning approach
for detecting the realistic black and white ball currently in use in the
RoboCup Standard Platform League. Our aim is to provide a ready-to-use software
module that can be useful for the RoboCup SPL community. To this end, the
approach is integrated within the official B-Human code release 2016. The
complete code for the approach presented in this work can be downloaded from
the SPQR Team homepage at http://spqr.diag.uniroma1.it and from the SPQR Team
GitHub repository at https://github.com/SPQRTeam/SPQRBallPerceptor. The
approach has been tested in multiple environments, both indoor and outdoor.
Furthermore, the ball detector described in this technical report has been used
by the SPQR Robot Soccer Team during the competitions of the Robocup German
Open 2017. To facilitate the use of our code by other teams, we have prepared a
step-by-step installation guide.
