Over the past decade, there has been remarkable expansion that has taken place in industrial automation. So much so that it has also started an almost entirely automated field of business management too, Enterprise Mobility Management. Barriers to entry are falling on a daily basis as enterprises, small and large, now realize the power of semi automated and fully automated technology along with total and partial grid integration. However, one major drawback has always pushed automation back and that is its scope as traditionally automation has remained limited to only repetitive and regular tasks. AI has changed that for most of the world now but it continues to surprise us how frequently we underestimate the power of adaptation and partially sentient mechanical assistance.
Robots are now bringing automation to more and more complex, challenging tasks which are raising a lot of eyebrows and questions. In order to achieve this, they are relying on machine vision.
More Precision
In the previous decade we have managed to improve the camera quite drastically and sensor technology even more. The concept was to enhance the operating capabilities of two robots by equipping them with machine vision this would mean that these robots will be able to actively see, assess and deduce certain things using their vision like we use ours sort of like a partially sentient drone. With this new capability the first robot performs a series of tasks starting with packing randomly strewn pipes into a plastic bin with the help of a camera for providing vision guidance. The second robot then approaches the bin and would lift the pipe assess it and finally twist the caps on the pipes.
This new system solved the ergonomic issues as well as issues that could lead to carpal tunnel syndrome for humans and significantly increased the production efficiency of the robots making them better and more well suited to such tasks. It may seem like an evolution of the system rather than a major revolution but to be perfectly candid it is undoubtedly a bit of both and absolute magic to behold.
Robo Vision Is Rapidly Growing
In some unique situations, there are multiple different components that need to be identified almost perfectly which would mean there is no flaw in categorization. Vision-guided robots are designed to have advanced software which enables them to understand and interpret the environment much like humans do. This powerful software relies upon complex algorithms that update the robot with new information continuously.
Vision-guided robotic systems are already on the rise and are expected to soon be part of a greater adoption as resources converge. In other words it is predicted to have a considerable impact on the next evolutionary step in robotics: the collaborative system.
These systems are designed to work efficiently, effectively, smartly and safely with humans side by side. Exterior sensors are not enough for collaborative systems, and machine vision is the only answer to many challenges in collaborative systems. We can go on to identify multiple factors that have a bigger potential impact but that would be pointless at this stage. Vision-guided robots are now becoming the norm, and if you wish to get your hands on advanced vision-guided robots to enhance your operations, get in touch with Cincinnati Automation.
