The right tool for the job

There’s a tendency in our industry to obsess over technology. We love to argue the merits of different pattern matching algorithms, what makes for the “best” LED light, and whether GigE is superior to Firewire. But in all this debate we often forget that the user doesn’t care. To the plant-based Manufacturing Engineer, machine vision is just a tool to solve a problem.

But with so many products on offer, from vision sensors to linescan cameras, how does he figure out which tool to use? Well John Lewis and Greg Wiese from Cognex recently put together a useful guide. Called “Choosing the Appropriate Sensor Technology”, and published on the Vision & Sensors web site in Aril 2008, the article does an excellent job of summarizing how to assess the application and so decide which type of vision tool to use.

Did you catch that? “Assess the application.” That’s right, start by defining what you want to do. I recommend first putting the task in writing, and then making sure to eliminate ambiguity. Quantify what you want to do before talking to vendors. Then you can at least measure how closely the product the salesman is pushing fits your needs, and so avoid buying more vision system than you need (or not enough.)