An Overview of the Advantages of Machine Vision

        The purpose of industrial automation is to minimize human operation throughout the entire industrial production process. In the production process, it will involve the inspection of many products, production monitoring, part identification, and so on. The purpose of the emergence of machine vision is usually to handle tasks that the human eye cannot continuously and stably complete with high repeatability and intelligence. For example, size inspection of batch-processed parts, integrity inspection of automatic assembly, automatic positioning of components on an electronic assembly line, character recognition on ICs, and so on. 

       Therefore, people began to consider using an optoelectronic imaging system to collect the images of the controlled targets, and then perform digital processing through a computer or a dedicated image processing module. Based on the information such as the pixel distribution, brightness, and color of the images, judgments about size, shape, color, etc. are made. In this way, by combining the rapidity and repeatability of the computer with the highly intelligent and abstract capabilities of human eye vision, the concept of machine vision was born.

       A successful machine vision system is a system that has been carefully engineered to meet a series of clear requirements. Once these requirements are fully determined, the system is designed and established to meet these precise requirements.

The advantages of machine vision include the following points:

1. High precision: As an accurate measuring instrument, a designed vision system is capable of making spatial measurements of one out of a thousand or more components. Since this kind of measurement does not require contact, there is no wear and tear or danger to fragile components.

2. Continuity: The vision system can free people from the hardship of fatigue. Since there are no human operators, there are also no operation variations caused by humans. Multiple systems can be set to run independently.

3. High cost efficiency: With the sharp decline in the price of computer processors, the cost efficiency of machine vision systems has become higher and higher. A vision system worth $10,000 can easily replace three human inspectors, and each inspector requires an annual salary of $20,000. In addition, the operation and maintenance costs of the vision system are very low.

4. Flexibility: The vision system is capable of performing various different measurements. When the application changes, only the software needs to be changed or upgraded accordingly to meet the new requirements.

       The selection and design of the machine vision light source is also a very important component. The quality of the machine vision light source can directly affect the entire machine vision system and can also affect the quality of the input.