Quality control is essential across all industries. From manufacturing to medical research to agriculture, performing inspections throughout a process helps to ensure a higher-quality product. In the past, workers had to spend numerous hours performing tedious inspections. But thanks to the power of machine vision, humans have been relieved of these fatiguing tasks.
How Machine Vision Got Started
Machine vision applications have grown dramatically over the last decade. Applications for machine vision can be seen in almost every walk of life, from the inspection of pharmaceuticals to the selection of the right wood used to make wine barrels. Machine vision is now a key element in almost every automation process. It provides faster and more reliable results. Ultimately producing a more efficient, better quality, and low-cost item.
Machine Vision Inspection: How It Works
Machine vision systems include a camera, an image processor, and software to analyze the image. After the image is analyzed, an automated system will typically make decisions. The resulting actions often range from sorting to rejection to alerting a human worker of a list of defects.
Many inspection applications use 2D grayscale images. State-of-the-art sensors with high frame rates and large resolutions enable more use cases than ever. With cameras and processors capable of faster and more accurate throughputs, detecting smaller inconsistencies in more extensive fields of view is more accessible and less expensive.
The Future of Machine Vision Inspection
As cameras continue to advance and additional features become available, the number of inspections and the type of inspection increase. Standard camera architectures have added larger field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), allowing for a higher level of computing. These components are excellent for scalable inspection applications at lower costs.
One more recent advancement of machine vision inspection is integration with artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. As this field continues to grow, machine vision won't be limited to a set of pre-programmed variables. With the ability to make decisions based on massive datasets, inspection mistakes could one day be eliminated, increasing product safety and quality for consumers.
Do you want to add machine vision inspection to your industrial automation system? Buy a quality machine vision camera from the experts at Phase 1 Technology Corp.