Thermal imaging & vision systems


With other technologies, such as sensors, practical implementation would be virtually impossible – particularly in terms of speed,” explains Schwarz.


A 3D POINT CLOUD ENABLES THE ROBOT TO RECOGNISE INDIVIDUAL WORKPIECES The application consists of several hardware components. At its core is a six-axis robot. A vacuum surface gripper system is used as an end effector. A 3D laser scanner is also mounted on the robot’s gripper arm. The drilling operations take place in the DRILLTEQ V-310 CNC machining centre from HOMAG. The machining centre offers a wide range of options for precise processing of wooden workpieces. For the machine vision software, HOMAG chose MVTec HALCON. “We have been working with MVTec’s software for some time. HALCON has a huge pool of machine vision operators that allow virtually all machine vision applications to be implemented robustly. In addition, the software is flexible when it comes to combining different hardware components. And if technical questions arise, you can simply contact MVTec’s customer service,” explains Schwarz regarding the decision. At MAB, the production process proceeds as follows: An employee places wooden workpieces onto an unknown and chaotic stack in the work area. The robot then moves over the stack so that the 3D laser scanner can scan it from above. The laser scanner then creates a 3D point cloud – a highly precise three-dimensional representation


Instrumentation Monthly April 2026


of objects consisting of numerous individual data points. After image acquisition, the machine vision software MVTec HALCON extracts the top layer of wooden workpieces from the 3D point cloud and determines the spatial position of each individual workpiece. A stacking algorithm then calculates the optimal order in which the robot should remove the workpieces. This is an important detail because an unevenly unloaded stack could collapse. The robot then begins its work, removing the wooden workpieces according to the calculated order and transferring them to the CNC machining centre. Before this, the 3D laser scanner captures a 2D image of the code. MVTec HALCON reads the code and transmits the information to the machine. The workpiece is then processed according to this information. Afterward, the robot picks up the workpiece again and places it on the target stack.


MVTEC HALCON PERFORMS MULTIPLE IMAGE PROCESSING TASKS “We are seeing machine vision becoming increasingly popular in the woodworking industry and among carpentry workshops. Our software, MVTec HALCON, offers numerous methods – for example for inspection tasks or for collaboration with robots – that can sustainably support automation and digitalisation in this sector,” says Jan Gärtner, product manager HALCON at MVTec. For the robot in the MAB system to work autonomously and grasp the workpieces precisely, the machine vision software must perform several tasks. First, MVTec HALCON converts the 3D point cloud into information for further processing. For this purpose, HALCON uses 3D object models. This central container forms the starting point for creating a coordinate system within the machine vision software, which is then transmitted to the robot. Various HALCON operators first determine the distance from the gripper to the pallet, then calculate the top layer of workpieces, and finally determine the precise position of each individual workpiece. These positions are integrated into the coordinate system of the HALCON machine vision software and transferred to the robot. During the 3D scanner’s capture of the top layer of the pallet, it also records 2D images. HALCON uses these images to read the information from the barcode attached to each workpiece. The challenge here is that the captured image is quite large, while the barcode region is correspondingly small. Reading such small barcodes is a major challenge for any industrial image processing software. “The image-processing part of the implementation was not entirely trivial. Because of the flat boards, we had to combine 2D and 3D methods. This was possible with HALCON and significantly simplified the implementation,” explains Schwarz.


SYSTEM COMPLETED IN SUMMER 2025 The system went into operation at MAB Möbel AG in summer 2025. “Thanks to the close coordination with the partners involved, we were able to achieve very good results right from commissioning. The system is now operating very reliably, which makes us very satisfied and gives us confidence for the future,” explains Luca Zingg. “The increased level of automation significantly relieves MAB, as the employees who previously carried out this task can now focus on other, more important activities. At the same time, this solution represents an important development for us, because it allows us to significantly increase the automation level of our core machines and thus offer customers additional added value,” adds Tobias Schwarz, continuing: “Machine vision plays an important role here, because the technology acts as an automation enabler. In our collaboration with MVTec, we see the opportunity to offer our customers first-class and reliable solutions.”


MVTec Software www.mvtec.com 59


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