Machine vision is going into a growing number of applications, integrated into a system, adding more and more value.
The A3 Business Forum, the world’s largest gathering of vision, robotics and motion control stakeholders, the “Davos of Advanced Automation“, has just ended in Orlando, Florida in a general enthusiasm driven by the excellent performance of industrial vision in 2017 (more than 10% growth), and prospects that remain very favorable in 2018 and 2019. I2S is a member of this association of leaders of the sector and wanted again this year to take the pulse of the industry at this Forum, to confirm that its strategy remains fully aligned with opportunities and pespectives of the vision market, to leverage its differentiation and competitiveness.
Promises in advanced technology to bring always more value in industrial and consumer applications
The advanced automation sector is primarily driven by the health of the global economy but, more fundamentally, also by the promises in advanced technology to bring always more value in industrial and consumer applications. In 2017, we could note the dilemma of the semiconductor industry, growing rapidly, and a major consumer of vision systems on its own production lines, but struggling to supply semiconductors to manufacture its own vision systems that would allow to increase its production … I2S also felt this shortage with manual allocations from its suppliers of components, that required a daily management of priorities and agility in manufacturing to avoid penalizing its customers.
The vision is going into a growing number of applications, some of which are particularly expected for the change they will bring in everyday life, both to industry and consumers, and which have been the subject of specific sessions at the Forum:
- Autonomous vehicle; we note that the research focuses more on decision-making algorithms than on image quality, which is basic but sufficient. The challenge is elsewhere: in a critical situation, what is the “right” decision? Jump into the ravine or bump into the person on the road?
- Augmented reality, with industrial applications of helmets or glasses that superimpose digital information to reality and become operational and particularly convincing, for example for training, maintenance or remote support of operators.
- Development of 3D printing, especially in the medical field, combined with an associated 3D modeling system where vision is a determining factor. Developments around smartphones have begun but it is likely that integrated systems with ergonomics, precision, features that can be applied and customized to the intended application will remain prevalent
- Detection of defects of all kinds, based on learning with so-called “deep learning” techniques, which progress, even if it remains difficult to characterize the decision making which operates as a black box.
We also note the development of vision embedded systems, that are subject to a special monitoring in market statistics in a category called ASMV (Application Specific Machine Vision). In the United States alone, they represent a volume of $ 1.8 billion, compared to $ 2.7 billion for all vision components.
I2S comes out of this Forum confirming its strategic choices, first by developing its know-how in vision embedded systems, to meet the specific and increasing needs of applications where vision can solve a paint point or support a strong value proposition. Take for example the dental probe to build a 3D model of the denture or the digital microscope to detect and control various cells.
Improving image quality, exploring new image capture and processing solutions
The development of I2S is also driven by opportunities of new technologies to push the boundaries of vision. Interestingly, while the Forum has shown that most of the companies are dedicated to improving decision-making, from a basic image of average quality, which is certainly a broad area of research, i2S continues to work to improve image quality and to explore new image capture and processing solutions – terahertz, multi-spectral, supra-resolution, fluorescence-. By providing ever-richer information in the image itself, we increase the criteria for analysis and simplify the decision-making mechanisms.
Rendez-vous early 2019 to measure the progress made again in the field of vision, embedded and augmented by new technologies. No doubt that, once again supported by a favorable economy, they will be numerous.
Xavier Datin, CEO i2S