29 www.drivesncontrols.com March 2024 MACHINE VISION n much cheaper than the other two types. We predict a CAGR of 19% for stereo-vision cameras and a CAGR of 17.3% for time-offlight cameras over the forecast period – far stronger than the forecast for the 3D machine vision camera market as a whole. Rapid growth Key factors generating such high growth for 3D cameras, particularly over the longer term, include expected price declines for all types of 3D camera. This will allow users to upgrade their existing systems to 3D cameras, replacing slower, less accurate 2D systems. Strong growth is forecast in particular for robot applications, with a single 3D camera capable of carrying out the same tasks as several 2D cameras, resulting in robots becoming faster and smaller. Furthermore, the market for 3D cameras is continuing to expand, with many new vendors entering the market each year. This drives prices down, allowing more users to adopt 3D vision systems. Pricing is especially aggressive in China where vendors are selling products at lower prices to gain market share from well-established Western suppliers, driving longer-term growth. Growth is particularly rapid in applications such as autonomous driving and bin-picking (see Fig. 3). These two applications have the largest CAGR in our forecast and both really benefit from the use of 3D cameras. Autonomous driving, especially for mobile robots, is an extremely large growth area, with some vendors integrating one (or more) 3D cameras to guide the robot. Another major growth area for 3D machine vision is bin-picking, including palletising and de-palletising. Substantial year-on-year growth in sales of picking robots is helping to drive rapid expansion of the 3D camera market.n *The Machine Vision 2024 report examines the market for 11 primary products, in 20 industries, for nine applications and in 38 countries. More details from https://interactanalysis.com/research/ machine-vision Many new 3D cameras have been reaching the market recently, including these notable examples: n Photoneo’s MotionCam 3D uses parallel structured light technology to scan at up to 40m/s with a high resolution and avoiding blurry images. n Lucid Vision Labs has a new time-of- ight camera called the Helios2 Ray, with a 0.3 Megapixel resolution for distances up to 8.3m and frame rates up to 30 fps. It uses four laser diodes, allowing the camera to generate real-time 3D point clouds, even in sunlight. n Orbbec has launched its Gemini 2 XL stereo-vision 3D camera, designed specically for demanding lighting conditions. It can measure depths from 0.4–20m, capturing frame rates of up to 20 fps. The camera is designed primarily for robots and AIbased vision systems. Recent developments Fig. 3: Machine vision applications for 2022 and 2028 Source: Interact Analysis A typical vehicle today contains 275 electrical connectors. Ensuring the quality of every pin in each connector is vital for passenger safety and vehicle reliability. The linescan machine vision specialist Chromasens has developed an system that performs automated 3D inspection of automotive connector pins at high speed and accuracy. It consists of a 3DPIXA stereo linescan camera with 30μm optical resolution, a lighting system that provides diuse lighting, and 3D API image data processing software to acquire images of the connector pins. The system uses an algorithm to detect the number of pins in an image and creates regions of interest in a grid to calculate the 3D position of every pin relative to others, while measuring the width (radius) and length of each pin. Graphic displays of the processed image show a green circle if a pin meets the required specications, or a red circle if it does not. The system can inspect 50 connector plugs, each measuring 20 x 60mm, every second with veried repeatability. Checking the connection The Chromasens connector inspection system set-up Orbbec’s 3D cameras can provide precise measurements of package dimensions, improving logistics and shipping accuracy
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