The machine vision system market has made great strides, thanks to the high computing power of multi-core processors and the falling cost of computer memory. The rapid innovation of machine vision and fast image processing algorithms enables vision systems to be applied to an increasing range of applications in industrial automation.
These new technologies are used in large manufacturing plants for a variety of tasks, such as quality assessment or accurate 3D measurements. However, improvements are still needed in terms of imaging resolution, image acquisition rate and data processing speed. Machine vision hardware makes vision very useful for robot-guided tasks, which are expected to be further developed in the next few years.
Analysis of machine vision and factory automation vision guided robots has found that the frontier between industrial vision systems and industrial shape measurement systems is disappearing. The latest vision systems provide highly accurate 3D shape information in near real time. These systems are used for quality measurement and intelligent system control.
The role of industrial vision is particularly important in the manufacturing process, moving from a flexible concept based on product standardization to one that supports product customization. Making a standard machine vision system is extremely difficult because there are so many manufacturing departments and so many different details to cover. However, this diversity of applications drives the development of the visual system.
There are many technical challenges for different applications; Some customers want high-speed 3D, others want high resolution; Some customers want these features included in the product. As a result, industrial vision integrators are early adopters of technology, such as reconfigurable instruction set processors. High-end industrial vision technology requires enhanced data acquisition, transmission, processing and storage capabilities.
FMCG, on the other hand, has relatively low production costs. Fast moving consumer goods markets and developing economies are waiting for low-cost vision systems. The availability of off-the-shelf components gives machine vision integrators the freedom to customize system designs. Falling component prices could accelerate the adoption of machine vision systems.