What is Mahcine Vision ?

According to the Automated ImagingAssociation (AIA), machine vision encompasses all industrial and non-industrial applications in which a combination of hardware and software provide operational guidance to devices in the execution of their functions based on the capture and processing of images. Though industrial computer vision uses many of the same algorithms and approaches as academic/educational and governmental/military applications of computer vision, constraints are different.

Industrial vision systems demand greater robustness, reliability, and stability compared with an academic/educational vision system and typically cost much less than those used in governmental/military applications. Therefore, industrial machine vision implies low cost, acceptable accuracy, high robustness, high reliability, and high mechanical, and temperature stability.

Machine vision systems rely on digital sensors protected inside industrial cameras with specialized optics to acquire images, so that computer hardware and software can process, analyze, and measure various characteristics for decision making.

As an example, consider a fill-levelinspection system at a brewery (Figure 1). Each bottle of beer passes through an inspection sensor, which triggers a vision system to flash a strobe light and take a picture of the bottle. After acquiring the image and storing it in memory, vision software processes or analyzes it and issues a pass-fail response based on the fill level of the bottle. If the system detects an improperly filled bottle—a fail—it signals a diverter to reject the bottle. An operator can view rejected bottles and ongoing process statistics on a display.

Figure 1. Bottle fill-level inspection example

Benefits of Machine Vision-

Where human vision is best for qualitative interpretation of a complex, unstructured scene, machine vision excels at quantitative measurement of a structured scene because of its speed, accuracy, and repeatability. For example, on a production line, a machine vision system can inspect hundreds, or even thousands, of parts per minute. A machine vision system built around the right camera resolution and optics can easily inspect object details too small to be seen by the human eye.

In removing physical contact between a test system and the parts being tested, machine vision prevents part damage and eliminates the maintenance time and costs associated with wear and tear on mechanical components. Machine vision brings additional safety and operational benefits by reducing human involvement in a manufacturing process. Moreover, it prevents human contamination of clean rooms and protects human workers from hazardous environments.