DUBLIN — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 14, 2010 — Research and Markets ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/34f214/machine_vision_and) has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report " Machine Vision and Vision Guided Robotics for Factory Automation" to their offering.

An assessment of the emerging trends in the field of machine vision systems for industrial automation

Research Overview This Frost & Sullivan research service titled Machine Vision and Vision Guided Robotics for Factory Automation provides an insight into the prevailing trends in the industrial vision industry and also details adoption factors, market drivers, and industry challenges. It also discusses the technology roadmap for the sector. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the following technologies: imaging sensors, data processors, and robotics.

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Technology Overview

Technological Advancements and Declining Costs Drive Growth in the Machine Vision and Vision Guided Robotics Market

The machine vision systems market has taken giant strides forward, aided by the availability of high computing power with multi-core processors and constant decrease in the cost of computer memory. Fast-paced innovation in machine vision integration with advanced image processing algorithms has enabled vision systems to be deployed in an ever-increasing range of applications in industrial automation. The new technologies are utilized in large manufacturing plants for various tasks, such as yes/no quality assessment or accurate 3D measurements. However, improvements are still needed in imaging resolution, rate of image acquisition, and speed of data processing. Machine vision hardware makes vision useful for robotic guidance tasks, which are poised for further advancement in the coming years. Machine vision technology has been made affordable for plants located in developing economies, opening up new avenues of opportunity for machine vision developers, notes the analyst of this research service. As prices for vision components continuously decrease, human-to-machine replacement becomes profitable.

The role of industrial vision is going to be particularly important in the process of manufacturing transition from flexibility concept that is based on product standardization to one that enables product customization. It is extremely difficult to make a standard machine vision system as there are so many manufacturing sectors to cover and so many different specifics. This application diversity, however, drives development of vision systems. A vision system capable of sorting such different products as wastes might be the first step toward a system that is likely to recognize different products on the line and make actionable decisions based on such inputs. The future of industrial vision systems lies with cooperation with industrial robots. A typical task of a robot with eyes might be to pick and place more complicated objects at increasing conveyor speeds. In the future, a visually guided robot supported with visual serving system would be able to recognize and track an object and then perform accurate operations, specific to that particular product.

There are many technology challenges that vary from application to application; some customers want high-speed 3D, while some require high camera resolution; some of the customers expect both features. Therefore, industrial vision integrators are early adopters of technologies, such as reconfigurable instruction set processors. High-end industrial vision technology requires enhanced data acquisition, transmission, processing, and storage power. Such technologies are implemented in high-end manufacturing industries, such as displays, electronics, and photovoltaics. On the flipside, there is the production of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) that are relatively low cost. The FMCG markets and growing economies are awaiting low-cost vision systems. The availability of off-the-shelf components gives machine vision integrators the freedom of customized system design. A decrease in component price might accelerate adoption of machine vision systems. Developers of high-end systems are early adopters of novel components such as imaging sensors and processors; they quickly benefit from novelties available in the market, says the analyst. However closer cooperation with component developers could result in increased development rate of vision systems. Close cooperation between machine vision developers and component developers results in increased performance of vision systems on the one hand, but on the other, it makes more mature machine vision equipment affordable. Hence, developing economies will soon adopt machine vision technology, which should positively influence manufacturers of vision components.

Technologies

The following technologies are covered in this research:

• Imaging sensors
• Data processors
• Robotics

Key Topics Covered:

• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. Technology and Applications Background
• 3. Analysis of Technology Development
• 4. Adoption Factor Analysis
• 5. Innovative Developments in Machine Vision Systems
• 6. Key Contacts and Patent Applications
• 7. Decision Support Database