Open source machine vision platform for manufacturing and robotics

Abstract

The paper describes the design and implementation of an open source machine vision platform for visual robot guidance and automated product inspection in manufacturing, based on OpenCV library. Using this platform, the rigid, industry-specific organization of material flows can be relaxed, shop floor resources becoming reality-aware. The main functionalities are: acquisition of video streams from multiple sources, image analysis at scene level, part recognition, locating and interaction with industrial equipment using standard, open communication protocols. The paper describes design aspects: system architecture, data acquisition and standardization of the image representation used by the analysis algorithms and object recognition module and input/output interaction protocols for a set of predefined cases. Results are reported for an implementation of the platform using a commercial image acquisition device and an industrial robot.