News
Scottish imaging centre launches demonstrator project
Scotland’s Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems, CENSIS, has launched a national campaign inviting companies to join a demonstrator project for harnessing the potential of the Internet of Tings. Te potential applications
for the six-month project range from automation in factories and energy management, to predictive maintenance and product customisation. Te project will give the selected business access to the CENSIS team, its project management skills and engineers to the value of £85,000, which can be employed to develop or improve business processes. Ian Reid, chief executive of
CENSIS, said that the project could help a business increase efficiency and make it more competitive. Reid said: ‘Te Internet of Tings
has the ability to transform the way businesses operate, especially those in the manufacturing and logistics sectors. It is a big discussion point at the moment and could prove to have a profound positive impact on these industries. ‘Tis project will help the selected
company harness this potential and make the ideas they have for their business a reality. Tat could mean efficiencies in processes, implementing more automation in their facilities, or using technology to better manage their use of energy.’ Since its establishment in
January 2014, CENSIS has helped bring a number of companies and universities together on very different projects. Tis has included Optos and Glasgow University, both of which are working together on a project that aims to increase the scope and image quality of scanning laser ophthalmoscope lenses.
In the first batches of the Horizon 2020 framework programme, two three-year European projects with vision at their heart have been launched at the beginning of 2015. Te Eyes of Tings (EoT) is a €3.7 million project aiming to develop an advanced computer vision platform, while the €4 million SWEEPER project looks to build a robot for harvesting sweet peppers, the first in the world operating in a commercial greenhouse. Te SWEEPER project,
coordinated by Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, will build on a previous European robotics project, CROPS. Te CROPS demonstrator robot identified ripe fruit using a side view image of the canopy taken by both a colour camera and a time of flight camera. Te robot arm is then positioned in front of the target fruit, and a colour camera and 3D camera integrated in the robotic hand are used to recalculate the fruit position with high accuracy. Te robot has an integrated obstacle detection
system to avoid obstructions like plant stems and unripe fruits. Obstacles are detected using a set of small baseline stereo images acquired by two colour cameras. Approximately 1.3 billion kilograms of sweet
4 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • February/March 2015
peppers are harvested in Europe each year. Te first- generation, market-ready sweet pepper harvesting robot will open a new high-tech commercial area, according to Wageningen University. It is expected that the knowledge and technology from the SWEEPER programme can be migrated to other greenhouse crops. Partners from Sweden, Israel, Belgium and
Obstacles are
the Netherlands will take part in the SWEEPER programme. Te EoT consortium, which began
detected using a set of baseline stereo images
in January, will build a computer vision platform that can be used both on its own and embedded into more complex devices, particularly for wearable applications, robotics, home
products and surveillance. Te core hardware will be based on a System
on Chip (SoC) that will give high performance for demanding vision applications while maintaining a low energy consumption. Te aim is to offer truly mobile vision processing. Soſtware will be developed in parallel to this
design, at both the low and middleware levels, and also for a number of demonstrators. Te demonstrators span applications in surveillance, wearable devices and systems embedded into household items.
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The SWEEPER project will develop a robotic harvester for sweet peppers
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H2020 projects to develop crop harvester and computer vision platform
Wageningen University and Research Centre
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