The linchpin of automation—since before it was even referred to as such—is in its obvious benefits in increased efficiency and accuracy and its ultimate reduction in cost, time and waste. 

Machine vision for quality assurance (QA) has allowed manufacturers to overcome the limitation of human inspection in terms of cost and reliability. However, machine vision projects can be extremely complex and not suited to the technical and financial resources of most businesses.

Whether they are going mobile or adding artificial intelligence, a range of robots are appearing on the manufacturing floor - and more are on the way.

While artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining favor as a solution to quality problems, it brings a number of new, sometimes confusing, terms. As a first step, many manufacturers ask “What is AI?”

Deep learning has become a useful tool in the integration and implementation of machine vision systems in the automation environment.