AI-Enabled Machine Vision: A Game-Changer for Inspection and Robotic Guidance Applications

Machine vision has become increasingly relevant in automation as its usage continues to grow. However, not all machine vision is created equal. Traditional rules-based machine vision excels at quickly and accurately inspecting highly repeatable products. AI has enabled machine vision to tackle more complicated problems, specifically parts or products with a high variance of naturally occurring organic variability. With AI, products can be inspected in greater detail without being identical. AI-enabled machine vision can be used throughout a processing line to increase yield, increase throughput, reduce errors, and decrease waste.

If a product is rejected during a manual inspection process, the entire cost to manufacture that product is lost. Early defect detection by machine vision saves inventory and labor costs while protecting profit. In the food industry, AI can grade cuts of meat to help manufacturers appropriately price their products or check the quality of received produce to ensure manufacturers aren’t overpaying for bad products. This session covers how machine vision advances the automation industry, and improves productivity, safety, and efficiency by enabling vision-guided robotics and complex inspection tasks traditionally performed by humans.

About the presenter
Harley Green is the vice president of strategic business at Soft Robotics Inc. In this position, he is responsible for supporting the organization’s strategic direction and identifying and capturing new business in the primary food and consumer packaged goods automation industry. With more than 20 years in the automation industry, Green has diverse functional expertise with proven ability to quickly analyze and develop strategies to grow the business in multiple, complex markets.