Industrial frame grabber company BitFlow has named its five key machine vision technology trends to watch in 2017, as these markets, according to the company, are set to make impacts in the industry.
Industry research suggests that global market for machine vision components, including cameras, frame grabbers, lighting, software and hardware, will grow from $9.0 billion (USD) in 2016 to $12.50 billion by 2020. In order for it to rise at such a rate, certain trends will need to continue, and others pop up. These five trends, according to BitFlow, have the potential to significantly impact or even disrupt processes, and may poise the need for investment by manufacturers who face the risk of being late to adopt.
"We have identified the top five machine vision trends that integrators and OEMs should factor into their strategic planning for 2017," said Donal Waide, Director of Sales and Marketing for BitFlow. "Vision professionals should look to make deliberate decisions about them during the coming year."
The trends, according to BitFlow, are as follows:
- Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): As IIoT gains traction, machine vision should see a dramatic boost. IIoT links production technology with information technology, therefore it involves extensive data capture and analytics to continually optimize the operation of factories. Machine vision is one of the most important basic technologies to supply IIoT with information, and therefore as IIoT grows, so too will the machine vision industry.
- CoaXPress (CXP): The next generation of the CoaXPress interface, in the form of lower-priced, CXP single-link cameras with smaller footprints and lower power requirements are lowering the barrier for integrators to design systems based on CoaXPress. (See an example here.) Based on this, the increased use of CoaXPress is something to watch for in 2017.
- Non-industrial sectors: Lower costs and improvements in vision components such as color 3D cameras and machine learning techniques will further expand the machine vision sector into non-industrial applications including autonomous vehicles, IP video surveillance, intelligent traffic systems, logistics, agriculture and guided surgery.
- Ease of use: Operators and users of machine vision systems and technologies have expressed their preference toward products that contribute to a more user-friendly, intuitive environment on the plant floor. At the same time, vision sensory input is more complex than ever before, making it a huge challenge for device and software designers to simplify their interface. Standardization of products will help users integrate and run vision systems while also providing cost trade-offs for exchangeability of devices. Additionally, software designers will be successful as they make strides towards interfaces that walk users through a simple process of setting up applications, locating and inspecting parts, and configuring results with communication to HMIs, PLCs and robotic equipment.
- Regulation of pharmaceuticals: Increased regulation globally is forcing the pharmaceutical industry to install machine vision systems to ensure quality, traceability and security at every step of manufacturing ranging from drug synthesis to final packaging. As a result, this will lead to increase adoption of machine vision technologies in these applications.
Pictured: BitFlow’s Aon-CXP single link CoaXPress frame grabber
View more information on BitFlow.
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