In an Ever Faster Changing World
Extreme Configurability is the Answer
T
he “scalable software business” is enabling the rapid growth of many of the current day disrupting companies, such
as Uber and Airbnb. This should be a source of inspiration also for those of us working with software in
combination with hardware. And why? Because “scalable” can also be spelled “flexible” or “adaptable” and that is
something the manufacturing industry is looking for.
Here is a brief introduction to, how we try to apply this kind of mindset at IVISYS in our development of full vision
system solutions. But first a bit of background and insights on the main challenges of our industry, the automated quality
control industry:
Since the 1980s the use of vision systems--camera-based automated quality control--has spread to many industries. Many
of these systems rely on so-called vision sensors (and smart cams) —small integrated units with optics, an output signal,
a data processor and a software-pack. Most frequently, they are single-purpose units, programmed for performing only one
type of inspection.
Is the tide turning against such single-purpose solutions? At IVISYS, we believe so.
Many of these are legacy-systems hailing from the vision industry’s early years. Often, they have limited or no use today,
as they have shown to be too inflexible for the changing demands of current day manufacturing.
Two of the main obstacles for ongoing deployment of the early-generation vision systems is the lack of robustness and
flexibility, mostly due to light distortions and inadequate data processing speed.
Light reflections and other variations related to the light source is one of the main challenges for these legacy vision
systems, as small variations in reflected light distorts image data and thereby the robustness of the inspection.
Moreover, legacy systems often present manufactures to with a painful trade-off: Since each legacy vision sensor has
a limited data processing capacity, manufacturers has to have multiple such sensors if they wish to control various quality
points without losing production speed, and high resolution inspections are only feasible if the production speed is low.
All-in-all, the outcome has often been unsatisfying levels of robustness and flexibility—as truly satisfying results are only
achievable in environments with very stable light conditions with several sensors and long production cycles, all needing
individual set-up and programming.
Luckily, the vision industry is characterized by a high level of innovation driven by a wide range of competing industry
players, who all have their take on how to solve these well-known challenges.
At IVISYS, our approach is multidimensional. First of all, we have solved the lighting issue by developing our own light
source solutions combined with limited light sensitivity in our image processing.
Secondly, we have decided to make data processing speed a priority. The ongoing revolution in general data processing
capacity, following Moore’s law, has enabled several industry players to leverage Ultra High-Definition cameras, which
has made a focus on data processing speed mandatory.
However, all vision system technology companies have access to pretty much the same optics as well as the same data
processing hardware. Therefore, the specifications of a vision system’s data processing equipment do not really tell the full
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| August 2017 |