While we don’t currently live in homes as technologically advanced as the fictional “Jetsons” we are seeing more ways in which industrial robots are being used to ease various aspects of life in both home and business settings.
Industrial robots have long been utilized in manufacturing settings such as automotive assembly lines, food manufacturing packing lines and other areas in the aerospace and pharmaceutical industry. It’s estimated that there are more than 200,000 industrial robots in use in various industries today, many of which have three dimensional vision systems.
The applications for which these robotic devices are being utilized require them to be able to locate parts, detect cracks in items on assembly lines and locate parts randomly stacked in packing boxes or bins. Vision guided robotics (VGR) is one of the fastest growing technologies that enables more automation to take place on manufacturing floors in multiple industries.
There are various types of three dimensional vision that are being utilized in industrial robots and they including:
- Stereo vision. This allows a part to be located by identifying features via the use of multiple cameras with custom lenses.
- Laser profiles. Data can be gathered through the use of laser light and the way it falls on a particular part on a manufacturing line.
After the data is gathered it can be analyzed through a 3D sensor that can extract the necessary information which could be quality of part, time on conveyor, and others. This allows the engineer to quickly calibrate and locate parts along the way and make adjustments as necessary.
When you’re searching for 3D VGR for your manufacturing operations, it’s important to choose the technology that fits the specific application for which it will be utilized. Not all 3D VGR technologies perform at the same levels and it’s important to understand all of the tasks it will be required to perform before making any purchasing decisions.
Universe Kogaku designs and manufactures optical lenses for robotics, industrial, medical, high tech and electronic applications. Standard and custom lens assemblies are also available for scanners, CCTV, CCD/CMOS, medical imaging, surveillance systems, machine vision and night vision systems