3 Ways Machine Vision will Empower Futuristic Factories

By Embedded Advisor | Friday, March 06, 2020

Machine vision, with its unique advantages, is changing the dynamics in manufacturing and production facilities.

FREMONT, CA: Industrial ecosystems are today laced with the most advanced technologies. Machine vision, which allows automated scanning capabilities through embedded visual sensors, is one of the most promising technologies in the context of factories. As operators vie to achieve improved productivity and intelligent resource management, a machine’s ability to visually perceive processes and products to facilitate decision-making is bound to be a differentiator. For factories aspiring to become futuristic at the earliest, machine vision is contributing in the following three ways.

Automated Production and Maintenance Controls

Machine vision can transform many of the controls in a factory into automated and smart ones. By allowing machines to accumulate and process visual information, the technology of machine vision allows a high degree of self-organization capabilities in factory equipment. Thus, production lines can be automated, and flexible responses can be enabled. Besides, factory and equipment monitoring and maintenance also become convenient with automated alerts sent to operators.

Quality Inspections

When equipped with machine vision, systems can facilitate unmatched levels of quality inspection. In modern production environments where every process is automated and linked, machine-enabled inspections add a lot of value. With intelligence-backed cameras and visually-empowered robots, maintaining standards of production and efficiency of operational processes attains maximum levels of optimization. Subsequently, issues can also be resolved at the earliest.

Traceable Operations

Every element in factories can now be tracked efficiently with the help of machine vision capabilities. Identification tags that can be read by cameras, allow for the convenient accumulation of information. Every stage in a production process can be chronicled as a product passes through them. Thus, capturing operations and transferring digitalized information becomes easier and cost-efficient with machine vision.

With machine vision, factories are today being able to leverage visual data and enhance decision-making. Until recently, robots which depended on predetermined codes to operate, have now attained the ability to perceive factory surroundings and respond accordingly. Thus, the potential of machine vision technology in making factories futuristic is immense.