The adoption of machine vision technology has risen significantly in 2021 and in this post, we are going to look at some of the trends that have arisen and what we expect to see as the year plays out and 2022 rolls around.
Machine vision is the ability to provide an imaging-based inspection to machines and it allows industrial tools and robots to complete additional tasks such as manufacturing and quality verification.
Machine vision helps industrial automation systems by improving efficiency, improving inventory, and by being able to identify faults. Overall, the use of machine vision improves manufacturing quality.
Machine vision technology makes use of several emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, robotics, and smart glasses. It is estimated that by 2025 there will be nearly 100 million installed bases.
Machine vision is having a massive impact on the manufacturing and industrial industries, and it is expected to keep providing more and more benefits. Some of the new trends we’ve seen so far in 2021 are detailed below.
Top 5 Machine Vision Trends 2021
- Embedded Vision: Embedded vision combines image capture and processing capabilities into a single device and can now be found in a number of industrial applications and processes including driverless cars, smartphones, and autonomous drones.
- Vision Guided Robotics: Vision guided robotics is getting more and more intelligent and quicker and there has been an increase in demand. It is thought that it will be able to perform many of the same tasks as human workers do addressing the ageing population problem and rising labour costs.
- 3D Inspection: Most conventional inspection methods are two dimensional but the growing demand for higher quality inspection is driving the use of 3D imaging-based inspection machine vision systems. 3D inspections can observe, inspect, and examine objects with a depth of field and deliver accurate and real time 3D information that can be used to improve the applications performance if needed.
- SWIR Cameras: SWIR or short-wave infrared technology helps to provide higher resolution imaging and with the advances in sensor technology, the use of SWIR cameras is increasing in machine vision applications. Examples include laser beam profiling, hyperspectral imaging, and medical imaging. SWIR imaging covers the wavelength range from 900nm to 1700nm.
- Liquid Lenses: Liquid lenses used in industrial machine vision applications provide a wide range of benefits. They are single optical elements but composed of an optical liquid material that can change shape. Liquid lenses can be used in a variety of machine vision applications including digital photography, barcode reading, biometrics, and industrial data capture.
If you would like to discuss machine vision technology and applications that would benefit your business, our AIS experts can help. Our experts can discuss the latest applications, what type of machine vision would suit your business, and work on a plan for the integration of such. Our expert engineers can help design, install, commission, and validate your machine vision system. Get in touch with us today to see how we can help you.