Complete picture

Vision systems perform a wide variety of tasks in manufacturing, including inspection, monitoring and control functions. They can also be used in safety systems to help prevent injury to machine operators if, for example, they inadvertently obstruct the operation of a press brake or stamping machine ram/punch and die.

In principal the problem of inspecting a component might seem straightforward — illuminate the component, examine it using an image capturing device such as a digital camera, cross reference the captured data with a digital template and use the result to determine whether or not to accept or reject it.

But designing a system is far more complex. For example, system integrators must determine exactly what needs to be inspected. This requires consultation with all parties involved, the nature of the production line, what type of light source to use so that the system can 'see' properly, the camera type/output format used and how many cameras are needed. A 3D object shape can only be seen in two dimensions with a single camera.