Vision & Sensors

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The pericentric lens captures a top view and a 360° lateral view of cylindrical objects, needing careful selection to fit the image within the camera sensor. Its 24° angle provides adequate side visibility, reducing the need for dedicated side cameras and lowering costs.

Due to advancements in sensor technology, shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging is gaining traction in industrial applications. This growth is expected to drive a 28% annual increase in the machine vision market, enhancing food inspection, waste recycling, and agriculture.

Selecting the right lighting for machine vision is challenging, as achieving optimal contrast and consistent illumination is crucial for effective image processing. This article discusses the complexities of lighting design, including front versus backlighting and bright versus dark field illumination, and explores how LED technology and the lighting cube concept can streamline your vision system.

Manufacturers can significantly enhance product quality through automation, potentially reducing quality issues by 50-75%. However, to achieve these improvements, companies must integrate quality control systems, understand the costs of quality issues, and clearly define quality goals when sourcing automation solutions.

Robotics is rapidly advancing from science fiction to practical uses across industries like manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare. Key trends include autonomous systems operating independently, robots collaborating with humans for improved productivity and safety, and AI integration that allows robots to learn and adapt. This technology enables both large enterprises and SMEs to optimize processes and meet growing demands.

As businesses increasingly rely on machine vision to enhance quality, improve productivity, and increase the bottom line, technology providers are relying more on industrial computing solutions that enable faster processing speeds and higher efficiency, or that support new tasks altogether. 

As consumers demand higher-quality goods at steadily increasing volumes, the chief benefits of industrial automation — speed, accuracy, and consistency—become more important to businesses worldwide with each passing day. 

The first part of this series covered the basic principles that make high-accuracy measurements possible for machine vision. The second part of the series looked at challenges to accurate measurements due to the application conditions. This third part looks at characteristics and components of the vision system that can limit the achievable accuracy.

Initially seen as science fiction, machine vision in manufacturing faced hesitance due to high costs and lack of awareness. However, interest has surged, shifting the focus from "Can it be done?" to "How will we do it?" This reflects significant transformative changes in the industry.

Automated processes are vital in industrial production, with robots handling finished products and sorting parts for quality assurance. Equipped with 3D cameras and machine vision, they accurately identify and grasp items from disordered bins.