Vision-in-the-loop for control in manufacturing

Abstract

Machine vision is an invaluable component of automated manufacturing in situations where a high degree of randomness in the product, or the process, prevents the construction of a suitably structured environment for traditional automation or robotics. Case studies are presented of four mechatronic systems developed, or being researched, for quite different processes in the textile industry: garment assembly, lace cutting (scalloping), lace inspection and inkjet printing. They illustrate the potential for vision-in-the-loop in manufacturing. Although divergent in their purposes, the systems share a common theme: they each use line-scan machine vision, ‘incremental’ image processing rather than frame-based techniques and an integrated mechatronic design approach.