Sensor and Vision Technology

Answer: Vision systems take sensing to a deeper level. Instead of just looking for the presence of an object we can now look at size, shape, colours, and alignment of an object. Other applications are barcode recognition and label identification. Perhaps you need to see the holes drilled into a multi-stepped block of aluminum for a robotic arm to tap for bolts. A camera can assist in this by identifying the block presence, rotation of the piece, location and size of the holes and relay that back to the servo system.

Answer: Contrast is probably the most important. Understanding how light affects the objects image to the camera will increase the success rate. For example: It may be important to backlight a simple shaped object to increase the contrast so the camera can identify the edges for sizing, shape or alignment. Different coloured lights will help filter the ambient light to again increase the image sharpness or colour rendering to the camera.

Answer: Thru-beam sensors are composed of two pieces (an emitter and a detector) mounted across from each other and will trigger an output when the beam is broken. In retro-reflective and diffuse photo sensors both the emitter and detector are housed in a single unit and use the presence of a reflection to trigger their outputs. Retro-Reflective sensors use a reflector to return the light beam while diffuse sensors rely on the reflectivity of the object it is detecting to bounce the light back and trigger the output.