Machine vision is a transformative technology that harnesses sensors, industrial cameras, I/O control hardware, and advanced vision software algorithms to extract valuable information from captured images. This technology plays a vital role in factory automation, providing imaging-based inspection analysis and visual guidance for the manufacturing process and other production line operations. Widely implemented in automated product inspection, these computer vision systems enhance quality control and guides robotic systems, enabling precise adjustments in machinery behavior.
By allowing manufacturing equipment to see and identify objects, machine vision systems can efficiently examine vast numbers of parts in seconds, delivering consistently reliable and accurate inspection results. With high-resolution cameras and sophisticated optics, these systems can detect subtle differences that may be undetectable to human inspectors, significantly improving operational efficiency and productivity.
As industrial automation evolves with Industry 4.0 initiatives, machine vision technology is increasingly integrated with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and advanced camera technologies. These innovations enable the capture of 3D images, infrared wavelengths, and various spectral bands, helping to address challenges related to image quality and environmental variability. Moreover, the integration of edge computing and artificial intelligence (AI) elevates the benefits of machine vision systems by replacing traditional rule-based parameters with intelligent video analytics, enhancing their ability to adapt to real-world complexities and improve decision-making processes.
The Future of Machine Vision is Here
Many industries are benefitting from the implementation of AI which uses advanced neural network models that better replicate how humans see and make sense of what they see. When applied to machine vision, AI can overcome the limitations of traditional systems caused by variations in real-life applications such as lighting conditions, reflections, shadows, or perspective. AI in machine vision systems allow for quick and easy analysis of images to recognize subtle nuances and patterns, compare patterns across an entire data set of images, and retain information from each analysis to continually learn and improve accuracy over time. The surge in AI-powered systems deployed at the edge of manufacturing and assembly lines to process data locally in real time is transforming a wide range of industries.
The following are just some examples of how edge AI enhances machine vision systems:
• Quality Control: AI meticulously analyzes visual data from cameras on any assembly line for everything from measuring fill levels and ingredients in food and beverage processing to inspecting pills and counting vials to guarantee consumer safety in pharmaceuticals.
• Defect Inspection: Across a range of manufacturing and assembly operations, AI detects everything from minor surface imperfections and complex color variations to non-obvious defects that can’t be seen with the naked eye. It’s ideal for identifying scratches, microcracks, film damage, and structural defects on renewable energy assets like photovoltaic panels.
• Assembly Verification: AI confirms proper alignment, arrangement, and quantities of assembly components. This plays a crucial role in the electronics industry by ensuring quality and high-precision positioning of subtle components such as wafers in printed circuit board (PCB) assembly. AI can also classify and count components to route them to the correct assembly line or packaging area.
• Package and Label Inspection: AI identifies missing components and damaged and unsealed packaging in warehouse and distribution environments. AI machine vision systems can even leverage pattern-matching capabilities to read, recognize, and translate bar codes and labels. This is vital to ensuring product quality, consumer safety, and regulatory compliance in the food and beverage and pharmaceutical industries. The ability to read and verify labels can even optimize inventory management and improve logistics by keeping inaccurate, obscured, or folded shipping labels out of the supply chain.
• Automation: AI empowers robots to recognize objects, calculate exact shapes and dimensions, and understand spatial context to identify problems within a system design. This secures the precise placement and orientation of components in 3D space and improves accuracy in sorting and picking.
2-Slot Industrial System for Machine Vision Control – IPC962A
To meet the demands of AI-enhanced machine vision applications, Axiomtek has designed machine vision solutions such as the IPC962A. Like all Axiomtek products, the IPC962A is built with strict quality standards to withstand harsh industrial environments. It is certified to EN 61000-6-4 and EN 61000-6-2 for electromagnetic compatibility and offers a wide operating temperature range of -20°C to 60̈°C (-4°F to 140°F) and heavy-duty cold-rolled steel construction. The IPC962A is the mid-range model of the scalable IPC960 series, featuring two expansion slots for modular I/Os which can be equipped with Axiomtek's Frame Grabber and Real-Time Vision I/O Cards, the IPC962A acts as a highly integrated vision controller for machine vision applications. With excellent computing performance, flexible expansion capacity, as well as real-time vision I/O control and camera communication interfaces, the machine vision controller provides a total solution that addresses the needs across various machine vision platforms and automatic inspection cases and is ready for future AI developments.
Next-Gen Performance
Latest 13th/12th gen Intel® Core™ processors with Intel® Q670E/H610E chipsets and dual DDR5 4800/4000 SO-DIMM slots for up to 64GB of RAM and options for AI accelerator modules to handle intensive AI workloads. The IPC962A also offers support for Intel RAID (Q670E), Intel® Arc™ Pro A50 Graphics, and SiMa.ai MLSoC boards.
Advanced Connectivity
A wide variety of I/O interfaces are offered on the IPC962A including 2.5GbE and GbE LAN, RS-232/422/485, x USB 3.2 Gen2 (10G) Type A, 1x USB 2.0 (internal, up to 30 mm) 180D Type A, 1x 3.5mm audio jack for Mic-in and Line-out, and support for 5G wireless. Through the expansion interface, up to 230W power for add-in card and can be equipped with modular I/O cards through its two PCIe & PCI slots. Display outputs include DisplayPort++, HDMI, and DVI-D ports with resolutions up to 4096 X 2160.
Intelligent PoE Device Management
4-pin terminal blocks for 18 to 36 VDC input power, ignition control, remote LED, etc. Axiomtek PoE manager for PoE control and monitoring provides the ultimate intelligent power management, including physical layer connectivity, communication layer protocol, middleware API, and high-level software management.
SDK with rich Library & API
By incorporating Axiomtek’s software development kit (SDK), the IPC962A provides rich library and API resources for system designers to develop applications specific to their vision I/O configuration needs, achieving desired hardware-software integration and collaboration.
4-port PCI Express GigE Frame Grabber Card - AX92320
Axiomtek's AX92320 supports PCI Express x4 lane, four independent Gigabit 802.3at (PoE, Power-over-Ethernet) compliant Ethernet ports and GigE Vision camera compliance. The 4-port PCI Express x4 frame grabber can provide up to 30 watts at 54 VDC power per port, which allows power to be supplied to connected PoE-based devices, such as GigE Vision cameras in machine vision systems. The intelligent GigE Vision card also supports IEEE 1588 (precise time protocol), enabling synchronization with multi-camera acquisition. Combining IEEE 1588 and PoE function, the card utilizes a single Ethernet cable for power, data, and synchronization.
Real-Time Vision I/O Card - AX92352
The Axiomtek's AX92352 is a PCI Express x1 vision card with vision-specific I/Os and real-time controls. A machine vision system requires accurate interaction between lighting, cameras, actuators and sensor devices. The AX92352 vision I/O card integrates LED lighting controller, camera trigger, encoder input, and digital I/O to connect and control all the vision devices. The vision I/O card supports 4-CH trigger input, 4-CH or 8-CH trigger output, 4-CH LED lighting control, 1-CH quadrature encoder, 8-CH isolated DI and DO, plus 1-CH auto measurement function for rugged machine vision and video surveillance applications. The encoder input function is particularly suited for conveyor applications, with incremental quadrature encoder input and de-bounce filters for integrating and controlling multiple I/Os in real-time, enabling accurate interaction between lighting, cameras, actuators, and sensor devices. Axiomtek’s lighting control module offers multiple lighting control modes and an adjustable delay/duration time function, allowing users to set the delay time that the system waits before it sends a trigger output and defines the duration to adjust pulse width for the LED output. When paired with the highly modular IPC962A, the AX92352 Real-Time Vision I/O Card and lighting control module delivers microsecond-scale control and lighting control to meet timing sequence requirements.
