Best Object Detection Criteria
So here's my setup. I have a stereo camera setup with two PoE cameras with which I am supposed to detect a set of rivets on a sheet metal part which sort of looks like this(they are always a pair of 6 rivets). 
The stereo camera setup has a bunch of lighting attachments using which I have to basically come up with the best lighting attachment with which object detection can be done. I have experimented with the different lights and found out that mostly the issues are with the big spot of direct light hitting the shell which causes overexposure. Although with this, I have been able to identify the rivets using the Hough circle algorithm, only difference being I need to set the thresholding limits for each image due to the changing illumination intensity levels.
My question is, how can I come up with a quantifiable factor with which I can say a certain setup can be considered as the best possible setup for object detection?
I'm not sure if I am clear enough so please feel free to ask for more information if needed
Regards, Sanjay