Industrial automation and embedded vision: A powerful combination

摘要

In order for manufacturing robots and other industrial automation systems to meaningfully interact with the objects they are assembling, as well as to deftly and safely move about in their environments, they must be able to see and understand their surroundings. Cost-effective and capable vision processors, fed by depth-discerning image sensors and running robust software algorithms, are transforming longstanding autonomous and adaptive industrial automation aspirations into reality. Automated systems in manufacturing line environments are capable of working more tirelessly, faster, and more exactly than humans. However, their success has traditionally been predicated on incoming parts arriving in fixed orientations and locations, thereby increasing manufacturing process complexity. Any deviation in part position or orientation causes assembly failures. Humans use their eyes (along with other senses) and brains to understand and navigate through the world around them. Robots and other industrial automation systems should be able to do the same thing. They can leverage camera assemblies, vision processors, and various software algorithms in order to skillfully adapt to evolving manufacturing line circumstances, as well as to extend vision processing's benefits to other areas of the supply chain, such as piece parts and finished goods inventory tracking.