TECHNOLOGY n 15 www.drivesncontrols.com February 2025 A CALIFORNIAN FIRM, SiLC Technologies, has announced a laser line scanner capable of dimensioning objects with submillimetre accuracy from distances of up to 10m. Aimed at industrial automation applications, SiLC’s Eyeonic Trace is an allin-one inspection and measurement tool for objects moving on conveyor belts, assembly lines or bucket elevators, or being scanned by robotic arms. SiLC specialises in integrated single-chip FMCW (frequency-modulated continuous wave) LiDar technologies. The Eyeonic Trace is its rst turnkey product. Until now, it has supplied components to customers to integrate into their own products. This expansion of SiLC’s business model will allow it to reach a wider range of customers. The scanner “provides better depth precision than the human eye,” says SiLC CEO, Dr Mehdi Asghari. “Not only does our Eyeonic Trace measure objects with great precision, but the laser is also Class 1 eyesafe, which means that factory workers can use it without the constraints of a ‘Keep Out’ area or a ‘Special Eye Protection Required’ mandate.” At the heart of the new scanner is SiLC’s Eyeonic vision sensor with an integrated silicon photonics chip containing low-loss waveguides, coherent detection, semiconductor optical ampliers and other photonic functions. The scanner has a wide 72-degree eldof-view, allowing it to measure large objects. It is designed to be mounted 2-3m above a conveyor belt or assembly line, or on a robot arm. It can measure large boxes as well as items a few centimetres tall. The scanner can provide millimetre precision at distances from 10cm to 10m. It operates over a wide dynamic range, accommodating objects with diverse reective properties. The scanner works indoors or outdoors, and is unaected by ambient light. It measures 200 x 135 x 75mm. www.silc.com SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES SOFTWARE AND SONY have announced a headmounted display (HMD) for industrial metaverse applications, describing it as a “breakthrough” for immersive engineering. The XR HMD (SRH-S1) headset incorporates 4K OLED microdisplays, and a technology that delivers real-time, high-denition and realistic rendering of 3D objects. It comes with a pair of controllers for precise pointing and interaction with the objects. The $4,750 head-mounted display is optimised for extended use, and designed with comfort and stability in mind. The HMD and controllers are expected to start shipping this month. “We embarked on this collaborative project with Sony to deliver the power of the industrial metaverse to our community of designers, engineers and manufacturers directly in our agship product engineering software,” says Bob Haubrock, senior vicepresident for product engineering software at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “Our collective teams have built a set of tools that revolutionise how mixed reality is used in the engineering space – to not only support global collaboration based on high-delity 3D models, but to enable co-creation directly on vital 3D CAD data in a managed, secure environment.” Siemens has developed a set of software tools to work with the headset. These are designed to bring the power of mixed reality to product engineering and manufacturing, enabling high-resolution mixed reality and 3D-focused collaboration. The tools include: n NX Immersive Explorer, which allows designers and engineers to conduct informal design reviews and to collaborate using 3D CAD data derived from Siemens’ NX product engineering software. n NX Immersive Designer, which takes advantage of the capabilities of the HMD to allow designers and engineers to interact, manipulate and collaborate around 3D product models without needing additional preparation or software. The HMD’s ring and pointer controllers allow users to interact with objects and to manipulate 3D geometries. They can interact directly with product prototypes, NX commands and menus. The software supports augmented, mixed-reality environments to place virtual objects in the real world, conduct design sessions in a high-delity virtual design review space, and/or use large highresolution virtual monitors to extend the virtual design session. Using a tool called NX Voice Command Assistant, designers and engineers can navigate multiple levels of menus and clicks by speaking keywords. n NX Immersive Collaborator, which builds on the capabilities of the rst two tools to allow organisations to take advantage of both co-located and remote design reviews with multiple participants. It uses Siemens’ cloud-enabled NX X design software to host collaborative and review sessions, with participants using local VR or desktop views. One of the early users of the technology has been the UK-based motorsport manufacturer BAC (Briggs Automotive Company), whose founder and head of design, Ian Briggs, reports that the immersive engineering technology has been helping BAC’s designers and engineers to “see, design and edit parts more easily with the unique controllers, enabling our customers to experience their car at human-scale before it is built, and helping stakeholders from production to collaborate easily with designers and engineers to validate parts before manufacturing”. https://www.sw.siemens.com/ en-US/digital-transformation/ sony-head-mounted-display-vr Siemens and Sony claim an immersive ‘breakthrough’ for the industrial metaverse Siemens and Sony say that their head-mounted display and software will revolutionise how mixed reality is used in engineering Laser scanner delivers ‘better precision than the human eye’
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