Machine Vision Advances for Tracking and Sorting Products

Companies need to get their products and packages to customers fast to remain competitive and distribution centers can't miss a step. Advances in machine vision are critical to efficient sorting and tracking.

That's not the only reason for incorporating machine vision into your automation strategy. Pharmaceutical firms and food processing entities have to meet regulatory demands while distribution centers look for ways to save on expenses.

Machine vision, like all developments in technology, has lasting benefits yet there are some bumps to smooth out as the demand grows for automated tracking and sorting systems. Improvements with hardware and software are keeping pace with this growing customer segment.

What Comes Next

Today's barcodes and data collection capabilities make it hard to believe that our machine vision capabilities can be traced back to developments in the 1950s. Portable typewriters produced the characters and the post office began using the system in 1965.

The need to boost productivity and consumer demands is timeless and laser scanners have been the industry standard. Don't look back. Camera-based solutions are quickly gaining market share.

The article In Track and Sort, Machine Vision IS the Trend points to the reason. A camera-based solution can read a partially damaged barcode while the laser scanner might only scan the damaged portion, resulting in a failed read.

Incremental Savings Equal Big Differences

Slight changes create big savings. In a recent ROI analysis, Cognex Corp. of Natick, Massachusetts determined that improving read rates by one percent, on a conveyor running at 400 feet per minute, could save a distribution center more than $160,000 per year in labor and rework costs.

Now, here's what can be saved when you get rid of hand held scanners. Vitronic Machine Vision LTD. Of Louisville, Kentucky recently conducted an analysis of fixed autoID camera-based readers versus handheld laser scanners.

Vitronic estimates that a company with inbound or outbound distribution that processes 10,000 packages per day can cut handling time per package from six seconds to three seconds by eliminating the need to pick up, carefully aim and set down a handheld barcode laser scanner. Fixed autoID solutions can work twice as fast as hand-held scanners.

Tech Challenges and Upgrades

Now let's focus on getting the images from the camera to the computer. In the postal industry, 1D and 2D code readers are the backbone of an automatic postal sorting system as described in the write-up New Tools, Changing Markets Impact Product Tracking and Sorting Applications. A frame grabber was the only viable interface for these machines, said Donal Waide, Director of Sales for BitFlow Inc. of Woburn, Massachusetts.

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Users moved to Gigabit Ethernet because of what Waide says were incorrect assumptions that a frame grabber can only handle one camera and didn't have the capabilities needed for logistic applications beyond the postal markets.

Gigabit Ethernet has its own problems when it comes to high-speed tracking and sorting applications. "We hear about people moving dropping frames and data and how GigE systems can hog the CPU, requiring the system designer to add more computer power to handle the same application," said Waide.

Meanwhile, CoaXPress (CXP) continues to gain market share. Video is captured at 6.25 Gigabits per second. “CXP has the speed and determinism of Camera Link with the distances of GigE…and you need a frame grabber with CXP."

A directory of frame grabbers is available on BitFlow's website.

Industries

Food Processing has faced a challenge in tracking and sorting. The food-processing industry traditionally used two cameras in sorting: looking in the visible spectrum for debris, size, and external appearance and near-infrared for bruises and other issues. Keeping two cameras running in synchronicity in a packing shed can be difficult.

JAI Inc. of San Jose, California developed the AD-080 two-CCD camera. It provides simultaneous images of the same object when viewed from the visible and near-infrared (NIR) light spectrums. The cameras have recently been sold into pecan and potato sorting applications as well as pharmaceutical applications.

Getting the highest read rate and the least amount of false reads at the fastest speeds possible is something general manufacturing customers want for automated tracking, sorting, identification and label verification applications.

Cognex Corp. recently announced a new software tool called OCRMax that includes three unique processing steps that allow the tool to learn virtually any machine printable font – with the exclusion of script – with read rates of 99% or better compared to 95% for many competing solutions.

Machine vision is meeting the demands of moving products through the supply chain as fast as possible. Stay current on developments by visiting Visiononline.org.