Manufacturing automation today is implementing exciting new technologies. Advances in artificial intelligence are providing the tools necessary to improve product quality dramatically while reducing the costs of production. One such tool that is invading production lines is machine vision technology. Optical analysis techniques are impacting both the quality of finished goods and the throughput of manufacturing processes. Machine vision is a term used to describe the process of collecting and analyzing optical data about objects in ways that enable advanced automation.
One industry that is focused heavily on this area is autonomous vehicle operations. Driverless cars are making their debut on highways around the globe successfully avoiding collisions and obeying traffic laws without human intervention. This is only possible with advanced machine vision. Interestingly, the automotive manufacturing industry is also using these techniques in applications such as bead inspection on assembly lines. Visual data about the application of adhesives used to add trim pieces and surfaces in car interiors are collected and analyzed to reduce costs and improve quality. Two basic elements of machine vision are the optical portion and the algorithmic portion.