What Exactly Is Industrial Machine Vision System

Industrial machine vision systems are an interdisciplinary field involving artificial intelligence, neurobiology, psychophysics, computer science, image processing, and pattern recognition. With the rapid development of industrial automation technology and the increasing demands from consumers for product quality, zero-defect, high-quality, and high-value-added products have become a core competitive advantage for enterprises.

To win the competition, reliable quality control is indispensable. Due to the accelerated speed of production, highly integrated product processes, reduced sizes, and increased manufacturing precision, human eyes can no longer meet the inspection needs of many enterprises for appearance quality control. Machine vision replaces human vision to automatically detect the appearance features of products, achieving 100% online inspection.

An industrial machine vision system converts the captured targets into image signals through machine vision products (i.e., image acquisition devices, divided into CMOS and CCD types), and then transmits them to a specialized image processing system. Based on pixel distribution and brightness, color, and other information, these systems transform the image signals into digital signals. The image system performs various calculations on these signals to extract the features of the targets and then controls the actions of on-site equipment based on the judgment results.

• Image Acquisition

  Using image acquisition devices to convert the captured targets into image signals and transmit them to the image processing system.

• Feature Extraction

  The image processing system performs calculations on pixel distribution, brightness, color, and other information to extract the features of the targets, such as area, length, quantity, and position.

• Output & Control Actions

  Output the results based on pre-set judgments, such as dimensions, angles, offset values, counts, pass or fail, presence or absence. Then, instruct the execution mechanism to perform corresponding control actions such as positioning or sorting.

In some dangerous work environments that are not suitable for manual operations, or situations where human vision cannot meet the requirements, machine vision is often used to replace manual vision.

In the mass industrial production process, manual vision inspection for product quality is inefficient and imprecise. Using machine vision inspection methods can greatly improve production efficiency and the level of production automation. Industrial machine vision systems are widely used in work condition monitoring, finished product inspection, and quality control.