3D VISION
The next dimension for industrial imaging
Keely Portway investigates the latest advances in 3D vision equipment, and how they could open up new industrial imaging applications
R
ecent years have seen 3D imaging grow in importance within the machine vision industry. Te shortlist for this
year’s Vision Awards at the Stuttgart trade fair is testament to how the technology behind 3D has advanced – and this looks set to continue and present a number of new use cases. According to Raymond Boridy, product
manager at Teledyne Dalsa, many applications that were previously not possible have been opened up thanks to 3D. ‘Te sensors are more sophisticated now,’ he
explained. ‘Tey are more accurate, they have less noise, they are faster and there is also the development of embedded processors, along with field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). If you combine all of these technologies, you can build a pretty powerful laser profiler or structured light system.’ Similarly, Dr Tobias Henzler, 3D imaging
technology specialist at Stemmer Imaging sees technological advances driving new applications. ‘One reason that 3D has taken a big step forward is the power of computing. In embedded devices it is also increasing and, naturally, with 3D data you have more data that you have to process than with 2D and you have to do more complex calculations to get to the results,’ he said. ‘Te second positive point is that sensors have got much faster... [whereas
in the past] 3D systems have been quite slow. Tose two facts together help more and more applications be solved in 3D.’
Advancing technology One company that has been working on 3D technology is Photoneo – its latest 3D camera to head to market, using the company’s patented parallel structured light technology implemented by a custom CMOS image sensor, is one of those products to make the Vision Awards shortlist. ‘We also make product soſtware,’ explained
Branislav Puliš, VP of sales and marketing. ‘It is mainly focused on robotic applications – the main application is bin picking. We also have soſtware where robotic integrators are able to set up bin picking without us. It means that inside the bin picking soſtware is a localisation algorithm, and based on the CAD file, we are able to localise parts in the cloud. Ten there is also the path planner for the robot and all the things that you are able to set up, such as the gripping point to point. Everything is inside the soſtware.’ Stephan Kieneke, product manager 3D
sensors at Automation Technology, has seen a wider range of applications for 3D emerge, even compared to just two years ago. ‘When I started in our company,’ he
explained, ‘I didn’t believe there could be so many applications for laser triangulation; the typical main use is inline inspection for assemblies.’ Automation Technology has supplied
triangulation sensors for measuring the thickness of smartphone batteries. According to Kieneke, smartphone manufacturers are trying to fit larger batteries in smaller
48 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • October/November 2018
The sensors are more sophisticated now. They are more accurate, they have less noise, they are faster
housings, and 3D information can indicate whether the battery is functioning properly. He said: ‘With new 3D sensors, you get higher resolution, so you can easily detect really small defects in batteries, but also in the housing, to see if the electronic boards fit. Tis is something new and also a boost for laser triangulation sensors. We have sold a number of these sensors over the last few years, as have our competitors in the Asian market, where
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