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Machine Vision and Industrial Automation

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In the area of machine automation, the biggest concern would be to make sure all parts and products are produced to be effective and reliable. There can be no discrepancies of nay kind when dealing with industrial automation and manufacturing. Every area of manufacturing would have to be inspected to ensure of validity and accuracy of the work processes. This is vital to any manufacturing facility, especially when tolerances are at zero.

In manufacturing facilities, inspections and testing are usually done before, during, and after manufacturing to make sure everything is in place that will guarantee the best quality in production. Inspecting and testing is usually done by physically checking every component, part, or system to ensure accuracy and factual guidelines are in place. However, with machine vision, this is not the case. Machine vision is the act of inspecting systems without actually touching them. The steps machine vision takes usually take the following steps:

• The part is taken to a scanning station.
• A light source shines on the part and the light is deflected back to form an image on the sensor (e.g. camera).
• At this stage the image is converted into a digital number that represents the illumination.
• After this conversion, the computer takes over and using a feature-extraction technique, isolates the features to highlight any problems with the part.
• After the necessary info is gathered, the results are measured and a mathematical analysis is performed to decide whether the part should be accepted or rejected.

This is actually more practical because a thorough inspection of the part is more possible than visually inspecting the part with the eye. Machine visioning is very practical in industries today, especially since computers have a major part in production.

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