With AI, the integration of machine vision systems becomes easier
Machine vision is highly established and it is impossible to imagine industrial production without it, Holger Wirth, Vice President Product Management Smart Factory Automation at ISRA VISION GmbH, tells us. He emphasizes that it is very important for trade visitors to seek personal contact with manufacturers again, for example at the next Control in May 2022.
Mr. Wirth, how is the machine vision industry doing?
Basically positive. The requests from customers are there. However, delivery capability is a difficult issue due to the shortage of materials. In addition, margins are in extreme danger, as material costs are rising enormously and cannot be passed on to customers on a one-to-one basis.
What are the priority issues currently being addressed by the IBV companies?
The industry is severely impacted by the issue of material shortages. Electronic components have enormous delivery times, in some cases more than a year for camera chips. This leads to immense additional work in sourcing, but also in R&D, as some products have to be redesigned.
Industrial quality assurance (QA) is considered a crucial step in product manufacturing – especially automated as an inline inspection during production. How important is the IBV in the meantime?
IBV is highly established and an indispensable part of industrial production. Modern methods from AI now make it even easier for customers to integrate systems, especially to replace manual visual inspections.
What are the growth drivers for machine vision in the industrial environment?
Embedded systems, AI-based systems, robotics applications
What new technologies support modern machine vision?
In addition to the classically used CPUs, there is an increasing amount of hardware that perfectly supports neural networks, for example GPUs or vision processing units that are very computationally powerful but still efficient. This results in new configuration options with regard to edge computing.
Are there any barriers or specific challenges that are slowing down the development of IPM?
Finding the right lighting configuration is still an important task that requires a professional. This is where the biggest challenges arise for the end customer.
QA and IBV are all about safety, quality, reliability and zero-defect production. How far can perfection be pushed in the real manufacturing environment?
Reliabilities of 99.9 percent are already a reality today. In addition, the systems are enormously robust and generally require little maintenance beyond external cleaning.
From 03. until 06 May 2022, the 34th Control, International Trade Fair for Quality Assurance, will take place, where the topic of machine vision will play an essential part. How important do you think it is for industry participants to finally meet again in person and live, and to discuss with each other on the concrete object?
Last year’s VISION trade show showed that it is very important for trade visitors to once again seek personal contact with manufacturers. Sure, digital communication could fill the pandemic communication gap for now, but a face-to-face conversation and also “touching” a system or component is simply more intuitive. People also like to “stroll” through a trade fair and be surprised by exhibitors and innovations. A digital trade show simply can’t create that feeling.
