Detecting part orientation

When you’re assembling components orientation is usually critical. That becomes an even bigger issue when the assembly is automated, but machine vision can of course help out.

European vision components distributor Framos has an interesting example in the Case Studies section of the website, (though it was Vision Systems Design (VSD) that first brought it to my attention.) This describes an application where it was essential to know if one component was tilted. The solution was to …

Click the links to find out more, but I will say it involved projecting a pattern. A classic case of a priori knowledge; knowing what the pattern should be, it’s possible work out why it appears differently.

One side note for you: GigE cameras from Smartek were used. I’d never heard of them so I followed the links from the VSD article. Turns out they’re a newish camera manufacturer based in Croatia. I couldn’t find out pricing on their range of matrix cameras, but I would guess they can undercut Basler by a few Euros.