THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF LIGHTING | ROBO NEWS FEATURES UPDATES | MVPRO 15 | ROBO 07 | JUNE 2019

COMBINED ISSUE - MVPRO AND ROBOPRO NEXT STOP, MILTON KEYNES FOR UKIVA MVC

LATEST NEWS FROM A BUSY INDUSTRY

FIRST EVER MVPRO MAGAZINE READER SURVEY

ISSUE 15 - JUNE 2019

THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF LIGHTING

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CONTENTS

MVPRO TEAM

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ED’S WELCOME - Next stop, Milton Keynes

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LATEST NEWS - Update

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NEWS - Catch-up on the industry

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MAIN FEATURE - Lighting

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MV SURVEY - The largest ever readers’ survey yet!

Sales Manager sean.welch@mvpromedia.eu

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UKIVA - It’s back to Milton Keynes

Rachel Bray

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SENSOPART - SensoPart celebrates its Jubilee

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VDMA - Embedded Vision: Success through Collaboration

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ISRA VISION - Embedded technology and quad-camera sensors ensure maximum efficiency in bin picking - an article from ISRA Vision.

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BAUMER - Image processing over 10 kilometers: new LX cameras with fiber optics interface

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GARDASOFT - 20 Years of light control

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SVS-VISTEK - Opts For German Base

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IDS - Modular and flexible 3D camera system for robot applications

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EURESYS - Euresys present its new custom on-board FPGA processing for Coaxlink frame grabbers

Neil Martin Editor-in-Chief neil.martin@mvpromedia.eu

Alex Sullivan Publishing Director alex.sullivan@mvpromedia.eu

Cally Bennett Group Business Manager cally.bennett@mvpromedia.eu

Sean Welch

Head of Design rachel.bray@cliftonmedialab.com

Georgie Davey Junior Designer georgie.davey@cliftonmedialab.com

Visit our website for daily updates

www.mvpromedia.eu

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MVPro Media is published by IFA Magazine Publications Ltd, Arcade Chambers, 8 Kings Road, Bristol BS8 4AB Tel: +44 (0)117 3258328 © 2019. All rights reserved ‘MVPro Media’ is a trademark of IFA Magazine Publications Limited. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any printed or electronic retrieval system without prior permission. All material has been carefully checked for accuracy, but no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies.

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NEXT STOP, MILTON KEYNES How time flies. It’s strange to think that we’re already on the third iteration of the UKIVA Machine Vision Conference and Exhibition.

I can still remember vividly attending the first one, a little unsure as to how it would pan out, but once there, realising that the organisers were on to a winner. The main thing I like about this event, is that you can learn something not only from the keynote speakers, but also the other speakers who populate and surround the booths. In so many shows, the speaker events are very much secondary to the floor exhibits, with some poor person shouting their heads off trying to engage the audience.

The MVC event seems to be more friendly, cosy even, and more welcoming to the speakers.

This one is a little later in the year, which means that by the time we’ve waved it goodbye, we’ll be looking at the second half of the year.

And 2019 is already proving to be a little more challenging - there is a sense that in some of the sectors, a little of the froth has gone and with this year, which is predicted to deliver a flat performance overall, it’s a case of holding steady and keeping the ship on an even keel.

It will be very interesting to hear what feedback we get from MVC attendees and how they see the second half. And of course, this is the year when we don’t have Vision and so after the long summer break, it will be the European Machine Vision Forum which takes place on 5/6 September in Lyon, France, and the Embedded VISION Europe 2019 which takes place on 24-25 October at the ICS International Congress Centre Stuttgart, which will loom large in terms of industry debate.

We take a look at what’s in store from the MCV later in the magazine, plus, in this issue, our main feature is illumination where, yes you’ve guessed it, we intend to spread some light on what is a vital part of the industry.

As well as our usual news update, we have a number of interesting articles and we continue to take a close look at automation, not only how effects the machine vision industry now, but also the implications for the future.

Neil Martin Editor neil.martin@mvpromedia.eu Arcade Chambers, 8 Kings Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4AB

So, if I don’t see you at MVC, let’s hope we can catch up later.

MVPro B2B digital platform and print magazine for the global machine vision industry

All the best

RoboPro B2B digital platform and print magazine for the global robotics industry

Neil Martin

www.mvpromedia.eu

Editor

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LATEST NEWS

DR BERND LIEPERT TO GIVE OPENING KEYNOTE AT EMVA BUSINESS CONFERENCE 2019 Dr Bernd Liepert, President of euRobotics and former Chief Innovation Officer at KUKA, will open the 17th edition of EMVA’s annual Business Conference.

The opening keynote titled ‘Robotics needs Vision – Vision needs Robotics’ aims to give insights to the world of robotics and especially to the ongoing projects to uptake robotics in Europe supported by the European Commission.

Liepert is the President of euRobotics aisbl, the international non-profit association for all stakeholders in European robotics, which was founded in September 2012 and has become the private side of SPARC, the European PublicPrivate Partnership in Robotics in 2013. As president of these associations, Liepert has been leading the European robotics community and representing it at high political levels since 2008, where he became President of EUROP, the European Robotics Technology Platform.

charge as head of research and development of the newly founded company KUKA Roboter GmbH until 1997. From 1998 to 1999 he was a member of KUKA Roboter GmbH Board of Management, responsible for development and design.

From 2000 to 2009 Liepert was CEO of KUKA Roboter GmbH. From 2010 to January 2015 he was CTO of KUKA AG, responsible for technology and development of the whole KUKA Group. Afterwards he was nominated the Chief Innovation Officer at KUKA AG, a worldwide leading manufacturer of industrial robots and provider of robotbased automation solutions. In this position he could contribute his vast robotics experience at the interface between technological innovation and the market.

Liepert earned his diploma in mathematics in 1990 at the University of Augsburg and his honorary doctor degree at University of Magdeburg in 2008. Since 1990, he has worked in various positions for KUKA. From 1990 to 1996 he worked as mathematician and developer at KUKA Schweissanlagen + Roboter GmbH before he took

XS: MINI USB CAMERA WITH FAST AUTOFOCUS The latest uEye XS camera from IDS Imaging Development Systems has a tiny body, weighing only 12 grams and dimensions of 26.5 x 23 x 21.5 mm.

The company said its fast autofocus is a special highlight among the numerous auto functions. It delivers consistently sharp images starting from distances of only 10 cm. The 5 MP industrial camera is available now.

The new UI-1007XS replaces the previous UI-1005XS model, but retains similar performance, appearance and functionality. The USB 2.0 camera has a robust magnesium housing and stands out due to its lightweight, compact size

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and many practical automatic functions.

Maike Strecker, uEye Product Manager, said: “The XS combines the simplicity of a consumer camera with the application capabilities of an industrial camera. Thanks to its 5 megapixel OmniVision CMOS sensor and helpful functions such as automatic white balance, automatic exposure and autofocus, the camera delivers excellent images even in difficult lighting conditions.”

In JPEG mode, the model delivers 15 frames per second and up to 30 fps at reduced resolution. In addition, eight freely selectable and easily switchable image formats from VGA to 5 MP are available. In combination with the integrated JPEG compression, the mini camera is also suitable for video streaming with 720p (HD-ready) or 1080p (Full HD). It can therefore be used in a variety of ways, for example in medical or security technology, in transport and logistics or as a component for kiosk systems.

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LATEST NEWS

OPTO DIODE INTRODUCES THE FOURTH IN SERIES OF NARROW-SPECTRAL-OUTPUT ULTRAVIOLET LEDS Opto Diode Corporation, an ITW company, has introduced the fourth device in the UVC series of narrow-spectraloutput ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UVLEDs). The new OD-280-003 features a narrow radiation pattern and a wavelength that is ideally suited for disinfection tasks in healthcare applications and water purification. Hermetically sealed in a TO-46 package, this narrow-spectral-output device is designed for easy integration into new, or existing systems.

The UVC series of Opto Diode’s UVLED family features operating temperature ranges from -30 °C to +80 °C and storage temperature ranges from -40 °C to 100 °C.

Suitable for rugged use and long-lifetime operation, the peak emission wavelength of the OD-280-003 ranges from 275 nm (minimum) to 280 nm (typical) to 285 nm (maximum) under test conditions at 25 °C. Total power output is 0.68 mW (minimum) and 0.75 mW (typical). The UVLED’s spectral bandwidth at 50% is 12 nm (typical); the half-intensity beam angle measures 9 degrees.

PRINCETON INFRARED TECHNOLOGIES ATTRACTS SBIR PHASE II AWARD FOR COHERENT LADAR DETECTORS Princeton Infrared Technologies, specialists in indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) imaging technology and affordable shortwave-infrared (SWIR) linescan cameras, visible-SWIR science cameras, and 1- and 2-D imaging arrays, has received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award.

The Phase II SBIR contract with Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) will fund the development of detector arrays for coherent laser detection and ranging (LADAR).

Princeton Infrared Technologies will focus on developing detector arrays using multi-quantum well materials enabling detection from 0.9 to 2.4 µm with low-dark current and high-quantum efficiency. This will enable a new generation of high-resolution cameras that can image at, or near, room temperature while allowing high sensitivity in the shortwave-infrared spectrum. The new arrays will be high speed, enabling next-generation coherent LADAR using arrays versus single-element detectors.

Princeton Infrared Technologies and its’ subcontractors will be conducting research on the development of new multi-quantum well materials, in addition to strainedsuperlattice materials manufactured on indium phosphide (InP) substrates. The R&D work will be supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

President of Princeton Infrared Technologies, Martin H Ettenberg, said: “Utilizing multi-quantum well materials will enable high-sensitivity detectors to image beyond what lattice-matched InGaAs detectors can detect in the SWIR range. These next-generation detector arrays will benefit long-range LADAR used by the Air Force to identify targets.

Current systems require cryogenic cooling while these materials will not, thus vastly lowering costs, size, weight, and power. The material development will also be useful in the commercial sector for spectroscopy and industrial imaging.”

The SBIR Phase II project is a $750,000, two-year effort that will concentrate on new material development.

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NEWS

JAI LAUNCHES 4-CMOS PRISM BASED RGB + NIR LINE SCAN CAMERA WITH 10 GIGE INTERFACE JAI has added a second 10 GigE prism line scan camera to its Sweep+ Series.

The Sweep+ SW-4000Q-10GE is equipped with four prismmounted CMOS sensors and a 10 GigE interface that also supports backwards compatibility to 5 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, and 1 Gbps Ethernet standards.

The camera also offers a single-stream option using the RGBa8 format where the NIR data is provided via the alpha channel. In this configuration, the camera can operate at up to 73 kHz with 8-bit-per-channel output. A third output option, capable of up to 74 kHz at full 4K resolution, includes 8-bit YUV colour data on one stream combined with 8-bit or 10-bit NIR data on a second stream.

The 4-CMOS prism design simultaneously captures red, green, blue, and near infrared spectral wavebands for both high colour accuracy and multi-spectral analysis via the NIR channel.

The SW-4000Q-10GE camera offers a maximum resolution of 4096 pixels (4K) per channel/line, and in combination with the 10GBASE-T interface, the camera provides RGB + NIR output at up to 72 kHz (72,000 lines per second) over dual 10 GigE streams. The dual stream configuration supports 8-bit or 10-bit output per channel.

SMART CAMERAS TO PLAY KEY ROLE IN MONITORING PILOT DROWSINESS Smart cameras are to have a key role in a new system which uses artificial intelligence to monitor pilot drowsiness The aim of the European Clean Sky project HIPNOSIS is to provide tools to evaluate pilots’ fatigue state.

Coordinated by CSEM and under the guidance of Honeywell, the project will combine artificial intelligence (AI) with aeronautics expertise, contributing to the advent of next generation cockpits.

Consisting of smart cameras and wearable electronics, a safety kit will enable the real-time detection of signs of drowsiness. The aim is to improve fatiguerisk management.

The team behind the project cite an incident last November when an Australian pilot fell asleep while operating a passenger flight, overshooting its destination by 50 kilometers. A few months earlier, in the US, investigators

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found that an air disaster had been narrowly avoided in San Francisco the previous year.

The danger had been brought about by a pilot’s lack of sleep.

Human fatigue is a serious issue affecting the safety of the traveling public in all modes of transportation said the team.

Nearly 20% of the major US Transportation Safety Board investigations completed between 2001 and 2012 identified fatigue as a probable cause, contributing factor, or a finding.

The HIPNOSIS consortium, led by CSEM, aims to improve the evaluation of pilot fatigue by providing innovative monitoring tools—namely, a specific vision-based system combined with a bio-physiological signal sensor.

Machine learning at the service of onboard safety HIPNOSIS won the tender launched by the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking, a European research program dedicated to aeronautics.

Andrea Dunbar, head of Embedded Vision Systems at CSEM, said: “We will implement computer vision and machine learning algorithms in order to detect signs of drowsiness in pilots in real time.”

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NEWS

SONY SEMICONDUCTOR ANNOUNCES FOURTH GENERATION “PREGIUS S” SENSORS The newly developed Pregius S line is the fourth generation of Sony CMOS image sensors incorporating Pregius technology.

The Pregius S reaches higher performance in a smaller package with stacked image sensor technology that is based on Sony’s proprietary Global Shutter function, and a back-illuminated pixel structure.

achieved a perfect result with the 4th generation of CMOS Global Shutter sensors, based on their excellent technical expertise. The new Pregius S line combines improved performance together with miniaturization, and enables customers to leverage increased productivity and smart applications in Embedded Vision and Automation.”

The new Pregius S line will be available in the Fall of 2019.

This technology allows smart embedded applications in industrial vision to benefit from imaging performance that is improved by 1.7X, while the form factor of sensor design is reduced by 40 percent.

The first samples of Sony’s new Pregius S line are now available from global vision partner FRAMOS. Sibel Yorulmaz-Cokugur, the Sensor Expert at FRAMOS, said: “The technical development and global competition always require higher performance in a smaller package; that’s the driver for future applications and innovation.

Sony’s Semiconductor Solutions R&D department has

Usability The right tool for every application Always fits: Cameras for all applications.

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Learn more at: www.baumer.com/cameras/CX

NEWS

ACTIVE SILICON’S UK EXPANSION Active Silicon has opened its new production and operations facility in Langley, UK, following weeks of fit-out and preparation.

Staff have been moving into the state-of-the-art facility as the company has re-located its assembly, testing, inspection and supply chain functions to the new site. All R&D, design, support and Head Office responsibilities will remain at the flagship office in Iver, just a couple of miles up the road.

Active Silicon told MVPro Magazine that the move gives more space to increase product throughput and recruit more staff at both company locations. The company is actively recruiting new staff.

Colin Pearce, CEO, said: “…the additional capacity at this new facility will allow us to meet increasing demand for our products. We’ve seen double digit growth in sales during the last 12 months and expect that to continue throughout 2019. The opening of Waterside Court allows us grow our workforce and increase our product supply capacity.”

EDMUND OPTICS INTRODUCES THE NEW MULTI-ELEMENT TUBE SYSTEM Edmund Optics, a provider of optical components, has introduced a new MultiElement Tube System. The TECHSPEC Multi-Element Tube System creates highly versatile optical systems, using mix-and match components allowing, said the company, unprecedented adjustability. It added that this makes the system ideal for prototyping and creating uncommon optical designs.

Multi-Element Tube System works by combining MultiElement Outer Tubes with class Multi-Element Inner and Pair Optic Mounts to create a complete system. The Outer Tubes have M29 threads running down their entire length; Inner Single, and Pair Optic Mounts have M29 threads along their outer diameters, allowing them to be placed anywhere within an Outer Tube.

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The design allows optical spacing to be infinitely adjustable along the optical axis. To ease adjustment, Edmund Optics also introduced a custom-designed Multi-Element Tube Spanner Wrench, which has a hollow bore to allow a beam to pass through during adjustment.

The Multi-Element Tube System can be further customised by using Multi-Element Spacer Rings and Spacer Tube to securely define optical spacing, Multi-Element Inner Apertures to control internal beam diameter and additional Multi-Element Tube System Accessories to connect systems together, or expand systems’ capabilities.

The Multi-Element Tube System accommodates circular optics with diameters from 5 mm to 25,4 mm and edge thicknesses up to 17 mm. System lengths can range from 15 mm to 100 mm and can be combined to expand capabilities. Multi-Element Tube System components are in stock and available for immediate delivery.

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IDS CELEBRATES INDUSTRIAL CAMERA/USB MILESTONE The interface, which was already widely used in the consumer sector, was not considered suitable for industrial use at the time. However today, after 15 years, USB is firmly established in the industrial environment.

“Our decision to use USB was initially smirked at,” recalls company founder Jürgen Hartmann. “But we made the interface suitable for industrial use. USB is very strongly driven by the consumer market and therefore the ideal solution to develop cost effective yet powerful camera applications.”

Within one year, IDS had completed the transition from the development of analogue frame grabbers to digital industrial cameras. In the meantime, the interface, already in its third generation, has become an integral part of the market.

It was 15 years ago that IDS introduced the first industrial camera with USB interface to the market.

It was back in April 2004 when the first industrial camera with a USB interface from IDS Imaging Development Systems came onto the market.

The product portfolio has expanded significantly compared to 2004. The product range now includes over 600 models with USB 2.0, 3.0 and 3.1 Gen1 interfaces. Currently, the vision app-based industrial cameras IDS NXT with artificial intelligence provide developments and additional benefits for their users.

8 12 16 25 35 50 No lottery numbers, but the focal lengths of the new CF-ZA series for 1.1" sensors

Always six right numbers: With only 39mm diameter and 2.5µm pixel size Especially developed for 1.1" sensors, the new CF-ZA series offers a high resolving power of 2.5µm pixel size and consistent brightness from the image center to the corners without vignetting. And that with an extremely small diameter of only 39mm.

More at www.fujifi lm.eu/fujinon. Fujinon. To see more is to know more.

NEWS

EUROPEAN MACHINE VISION FORUM 2019 ANNOUNCES KEYNOTE SPEAKERS The European Machine Vision Forum has revealed three key note speakers.

The annual event which takes place on 05 – 06 September 2019 in Lyon, France.

The first key note is entitled ‘The Future of Image Sensing – More Intelligence or More Sensing?’ and will be given by Professor Peter Seitz, Senior Technologist Europe at Hamamatsu Photonics.

In the afternoon session of the first conference day, Professor Dr Christian Wolf, Associate Professor at INSA, Université de Lyon and LIRIS, CNRS, highlights reasoning as a key component of human intelligence in his speech ‘Learning High-Level Reasoning in and from Images.’

Right after the lunch break on the second conference day, Dr François Simoens, Strategic Program Manager, CTO office at CEA-Leti in Grenoble gives his key note entitles ‘The Convergence of Photonics and Electronics: An Opportunity for Machine Vision.’

The focal topic of the European Machine Vision Forum 2019 is ‘Photonics and Machine Vision: Going Deep into Integration.’

It explained that over millions of years, biological vision systems evolved very differently in resolution, wavelength sensitivity, colour sensing, motion sensing, and reaction time, depending on the specific needs of the corresponding creature. This implies that machine learning is not the only solution. A better machine vision system is obviously one that deeply integrates modern algorithmic approaches including machine learning and modern photonics components adapted to the use cases of the systems. The 4th European Machine Vision Forum explores current progress and shows where we are heading.

HALCON 19.05 IS OUT MVTec Software, the leading provider of modern machine vision software, has released the new version of its standard software, HALCON 19.05.

The company told MVPro Magazine that this release will further improve machine vision processes with a number of new and revised features.

In particular, the expert team at MVTec said that it has enhanced the deep learning technologies available in HALCON. In version 19.05, the deep learning inference can also be executed on CPUs with the established Arm processor architecture. This allows customers to use the latest deep learning technologies on standard embedded devices. Deep-learning-based object detection has also been improved: The method, which locates and identifies objects by their surrounding rectangles (so-called bounding boxes) now precisely detects the orientation of the objects.

“With version 19.05, we are raising our proven HALCON standard machine vision software to a new level.

Developers and users alike benefit from numerous new features. These not only include additional, well-thoughtout deep learning functions, but also noticeably improved usability in embedded environments,” explained Johannes Hiltner, HALCON Product Manager at MVTec.

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NEWS

EYEVISION SOFTWARE NOW SUPPORTS THE FOCALSPEC 3D LINE CONFOCAL SCANNER UULA EVT’s EyeVision software now supports the FocalSpec 3D Line Confocal Scanner UULA. This is an automated, stand-alone optical 3D imaging and metrology system for submicron level accurate measurements on any material.

The UULA is the solution for a number of challenges, including for devices that are becoming smaller and thinner and the materials and shapes designed more complex.

In addition, it has been difficult carrying out sufficiently accurate measuring during actual production, resulting in costly halts.

Line Confocal Imaging (LCI) technology used in UULA enables customers to model the most demanding surfaces and shapes, even mirror-like, curved and transparent objects. UULA’s LCI sensor detects millions of 3D points per second, and it can distinguish irregularities of less than one micron. The UULA consists of a light source and a CMOS array which are arranged in an angle to each other.

The EyeVision software can carry out different measurements on the captured point cloud and profile.

The Metrology command set as well as the 3D Profile commands can be applied to the scans. The Profile Match command for example can compare previously configured profiles with the scanned profile and therefore can detect defect profiles.

GENICAM CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIRS RE-ELECTED At the recent meeting of the GenICam Standard Group in Suzhou, China, the Chair and Vice-Chairs were elected for another regular three year period. The previous incumbents were unanimously re-elected.

Dr Fritz Dierks (Basler) remains Chairman of the GenICam Standard Group and is assisted by the three Vice-Chairmen Rupert Stelz (STEMMER IMAGING), Stéphane Maurice (Matrox Imaging) and Christoph Zierl (MVTec Software).

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The GenICam standard is hosted by the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA). photo shows: re-elected Chair and Vice-Chairs of the GenICam Standard Group, from left to right: Vice-Chair Rupert Stelz (STEMMER IMAGING), Chair Dr Fritz Dierks (Basler), Vice-Chair Stéphane Maurice (Matrox Imaging) and Vice-Chair Christoph Zierl (MVTec Software)

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NEWS

DALE LEHMANN JOINS BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR ADIMEC’S AMERICAS BUSINESS OFFICE Adimec, a world leader in application-specific, leading edge camera solutions, has appointed Dale Lehmann to the Board of Directors of Adimec Electronic Imaging, the company’s North and South America sales and support business office.

Lehmann has served in executive management positions in major corporations supporting the defense and aerospace global security markets for over 30 years.

“We are delighted to welcome Dale to our board and look forward to his contributions,” said Gretchen Alper, Adimec’s Director of Business Development, Americas. “Dale is a proven leader in the global security industry and he will be a great asset in our further expansion into more long-range observation systems with our rugged color day cameras.”

“I am honored to be appointed to the Board of Directors of Adimec USA and I look forward to supporting their continued growth in the Americas,” Dale Lehmann stated.

“Their advanced products and progressive management will insure excellence in imaging throughout their key market segments which includes global security, machine vision, and healthcare. Adimec’s capability to customize to application specific requirements has been instrumental in their rapid expansion in the Americas and around the world.”

Prior to joining Adimec’s Board, Lehmann held executive management positions with Cincinnati Electronics Corp, L-3 Technologies and most recently General Dynamics.

He is a graduate of the University of Dayton Engineering Program and holds an MBA from Xavier University.

BOLT HB-30000-S CAMERA WINS 2019 NAB SHOW PRODUCT OF THE YEAR AWARD

The BOLT HB-30000-S from Emergent Vision Technologies (Maple Ridge, BC) is a Best New “Cameras, Camera Support and Accessories” Technology winner in the 2019 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards.

The BOLT HB-30000-S is a new 30 Megapixel high-speed camera featuring the Sony IMX342 CMOS sensor. It offers high resolution and fast frame rates, and is ideal for sports broadcasting.

The awards recognise the most significant and promising new products and technologies showcased by exhibitors at the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

NAB Show Product of the Year Award Winners were selected by a panel of industry experts in 16 categories and announced at an awards ceremony and cocktail reception

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NEWS

at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort. To be eligible for an award, nominated products and technologies needed to be on display at the 2019 NAB Show for the first time and available for delivery in calendar year 2019.

“Nominees like Emergent Vision Technologies are revolutionizing the way people experience media and entertainment,” said NAB Executive Vice President of Conventions and Business Operations Chris Brown. “The 2019 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards highlight the best of what’s new at the premier launchpad for breakthroughs at the intersection of media, entertainment and technology.”

“We’re delighted to have won this award,” said Emergent Vision Technologies CEO John Ilett. “Our HB-30000-S as well as all our 10GigE and 25GigE cameras will all soon be SMPTE 2110 compliant. This will allow broadcast and entertainment customers to use our robust industrial cameras in their applications at a fraction of the cost of typical studio and professional cameras that are SMPTE 2110 compliant on the market today.”

These are the first official awards that recognise innovative new products at NAB Show. The program will recognise the most significant and promising new products and technologies being showcased by exhibitors at the 2019 NAB Show, April 6 – 11 in Las Vegas, NV. The BOLT HB-30000-S is a new 30 Megapixel high-speed camera featuring the Sony IMX342 CMOS sensor. This camera offers high resolution and fast frame rates. It is powered by the latest 25 GigE interface, which provides a 2.5x increase in data transmission speeds over its predecessor, 10 GigE and twenty-five-fold increase over the industry standard, the GigE Vision interface making it ideal for sports broadcasting and more.

“Emergent Vision Technologies is excited to bring crossover capability with the announcement that all our 10 GigE and 25 GigE Cameras will be SMPTE 2110 compliant,” said Emergent Vision Technologies CEO John Ilett. “SMPTE 2110 is an exciting new standard that allows production to move video data over IP.

THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON OPTICS™

NEw Liquid Lens M12 Imaging Lenses TECHSPEC® Liquid Lens M12 Imaging Lenses – for focusing quickly at different working distances. This new M12 lens series is specifically designed for Varioptic liquid lenses and comprises four focal lengths between 6 mm and 16 mm. The high resolution, F/2,4 designs cover large sensor formats of up to 1/1,8”.

Find out more at

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Visit us at: Munich, Germany June 24 – 27, 2019 Hall B1, Booth 511 Milton Keynes, UK June 6, 2019

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UK: +44 (0) 1904 788600 I GERMANY: +49 (0) 6131 5700-0 I FRANCE: +33 (0) 820 207 555 I sales@edmundoptics.eu

LET THERE BE

LIGHT

Without light, many other bits of machine vision kit would not work, so this particular sector is a key piece within the jigsaw. We kick this feature off with a piece from CCS, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of LE D Lighting components for machine vision for their view of the current machine vision lighting market.

CCS VIEW Lighting the way for machine vision success ‘The global machine vision market is a multi-billion dollar industry which has enjoyed outstanding growth in recent years. Lighting, of course, is a critical component of this. As the machine vision market as a whole has matured and evolved, three key areas have emerged for lighting manufacturers: development of core illumination technologies, seamless integration of lighting within machine vision systems (including readily accessible lighting data via networks), and increased levels of control and functionality within plug & play, easy to use formats and processes.

Illumination technology Being the most commonly used illumination source in machine vision applications, LED Lighting has a rich array of products on the market offering a choice of geometries, wavelengths and intensities to meet a wide variety of needs.

While developments in these traditional lighting solutions continue, there is also an increasing emphasis on the way that lighting is used that opens up new opportunities. These include multi-spectral imaging using lights with different wavelengths to detect different characteristics from an object, where uniform spectral output of LEDs is required and adoption of developments such as natural white LEDs in the visible spectrum offer application benefits.

Lighting requirements are also frequently market driven.

One example is the transparency of silicon to SWIR

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illumination, making its use popular in the semiconductor industry; another example being the varying absorption rates of IR with different types of plastics where by using selected wavelengths in SWIR, waste-sorting can be effectively achieved, since you can identify plastics by their absorption rates.

There is also significant development in areas where new illumination technology is contributing to solutions for applications which are too complex for traditional methods.

Computational Imaging (CI), or multi-shot imaging, is one example where it is essential for applications where a oneshot system is insufficient because of complexities such as curved or uneven surfaces, different textures and reflectivity, embossed characters, or differing heights of inspected objects. Multi-shot Imaging relies on data extracted from a series of individual images captured under different lighting or optical conditions - a ‘computed’ image is then created and this contains the most relevant details for a particular machine vision task.

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) lighting technology is now becoming commercially available. With a large light emitting surface in a housing typically just a few mm thick and an exceptionally stable and uniform light intensity, OLEDs can also be moulded into complex shapes, opening up new application opportunities, and providing very compact machine design capabilities because of the physical size of illumination products and their exceptionally low heat dissipation characteristics.

In tandem with these emerging technologies, manufacturers are expanding the ‘plug & play’ functionality

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of their products. Here users are getting the benefit of compact, easy to use lighting products with advanced in-built functionality such as embedded control and straightforward connectivity. These advantages being introduced whilst maintaining a primary driver in this lighting product sector of ease of use, flexibility and competitively priced solutions.

Integration and control

not been achievable until now – this is driving high levels of innovation within both traditional machine vision markets, whilst also being a catalyst for solutions within emerging markets.

BASLER Launches intelligent lighting solutions

The increasing emphasis on a more integrated approach for machine vision systems has led to the control of lighting functions as well as camera functions by imaging software packages using a single software interface. This not only simplifies set up, but also ensures that advanced lighting parameters for accurate strobing and overdriving can be set in complete synchronisation with camera triggering and exposure times.

New layers of lighting control have also evolved which include monitoring, sensing and feedback to provide closed loop compensation for any variations lighting intensity to ensure reliable repeatable machine vision measurements.

In addition, vision systems can be integrated directly into manufacturing processes through a variety of standard protocols to allow automation of the entire process.

Importantly, this facilitates true integration of automation and vision systems – with unprecedented flexibility in machine set-up where, for example, manufacturing engineers are able to easily select machine vision setup parameters alongside motion or PLC parameters for automatic machine operation for multi-product production lines and processes.

Intelligent lighting Providing access to dynamic lighting operational data has allowed intelligent lighting to become a reality where control systems can automatically access LED lighting information. This allows lights to be detected and configured in a system, where the maximum strobe and overdrive capabilities can be obtained to ensure safe operation and access to parameters such as lighting ontime, and hours of operation allow remote diagnostics and data-logging.

This evolution is allowing the creation of an open architecture approach for intelligent lighting where the illumination can be integrated into any appropriate control medium. This is an important development moving towards Industry 4.0, where data exchange between components and subsystems is an essential requirement.’

Exciting It’s an exciting time for LED lighting within machine vision, where such outlined developments are enabling new opportunities for applications, some of which have

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Basler has launched what it described as intelligent, easyto-install and cost-effective lighting solutions. Depending on the requirements of the vision system, customers can choose between a flexible and an easy approach.

Camera manufacturer has worked with CCS to develop a comprehensive portfolio of various lighting components.

The new and unique lighting concepts are designed for Basler ace U and L cameras equipped with the Basler SLP feature. Basler’s patent-pending feature enables direct communication between the camera and the light source.

This significantly reduces the complexity of a vision system and enables any user to easily integrate lighting early on, thus shortening the time spent on design and installation.

Depending on the application requirements, customers can choose between two approaches.

The flexible option is to use the Basler SLP Controller.

In this case, users are able to select the best suitable lighting, which is controlled through the controller and is physically connected to the camera, therefore enabling the communication via the SLP feature. The solution is suitable for users with lighting experience who have applications with specific lighting requirements.

The upcoming easy solution is to add lighting to a vision system by using a Basler ace U or L camera with SLP feature and a Basler Camera Light with an integrated controller. This solution is a combination of camera and light, where the light is controlled directly from the camera.

The approach is suitable for users with less complicated applications who want to achieve results quickly.

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In both setup scenarios, the Basler pylon Camera Software Suite supports easy integration, installation and operation as it is the only software interface for both camera and light in the system. The perfectly matched components Basler cameras with SLP feature, the Basler SLP Controller and the Basler Camera Light series - allow an easy setup via plug and play. Easily accessible lighting functions such as strobing and overdrive can significantly increase the luminous efficacy and the life time of the LED lights used.

In the overall package, both solutions offer high savings potential in material costs and valuable time in the entire process from acquisition to installation.

CCS - PRODUCT

New releases like the LFXV flat dome lights, which achieve a clearer, sharper image using a new guiding plate, will also be on display.

GARDASOFT Launches new generation of machine vision lighting controllers Gardasoft Vision has launched the FP220 series of high speed lighting controllers for machine vision. This new generation of dual channel controllers uniquely combines capabilities for high frequency, high power LED pulsing with outstanding low output current performance, making them suitable for a huge range of machine vision applications.

Designed for use with any LED lighting rated up to 3A, the FP200 series provides reproducible current control to deliver continuous or pulsed light output. It utilses enhanced technology for faster pulse rise times, with trigger frequencies up to 10kHZ for high speed pulsing applications such as line scan imaging. With a maximum pulse current of 20A, applications requiring high power, long lighting pulses such as UV curing can also be easily handled. Naturally full control of overdriving, pulse width and pulse delay are provided.

CCS exhibited their multiple cutting-edge lighting technologies at Automate 2019, including its openarchitecture illumination system for multi-shot imaging solutions, SWIR technology that opens new pathways in inspection potential, a new series of innovative, highly flexible, plug & play lighting, and unique OLED technology for Machine Vision.

The company highlighted its LSS Series for Computational Imaging, the only solution on the market that includes lights, controller, and software for multi-shot image capture in a structured format to achieve the clearest image possible for an image processing task, in less time and at lower costs. In-booth demos will demonstrate first-hand how users can easily implement this complete CI solution.

CCS is also showcased the EL Series, a range of innovative lighting solutions from its member group Effilux. These easy-to-use lights feature customizable components for an innovative, flexible solution that delivers a solution customized to users’ exact application needs. Notable EL products to be featured at Automate include IP-rated lighting, SWIR, and pattern projectors.

In addition, CCS featured upcoming releases like the OLF Series OLED flat lights, the brightest organic LED lights available for image processing. With a slim design that still produces a high output and uniformity, the OLF will transform the way inspection systems can be designed.

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With overdriving capabilities up to 999% of the continuous LED rating value for high intensity short pulses, FP220 users benefit from Gardasoft’s patented SafeSense and SafePower technologies. SafeSense regulates the pulse width timing and duty cycle according to the amount of overdriving in order to deliver the maximum light possible for the application without any possibility of damage to the LED. SafePower provides automatic flexible operation with low heat dissipation for the controller itself.

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The FP220 Series also offer excellent performance for low current applications, extending the application range for these controllers. Output current below 300mA can be controlled in 100µs steps and in 6 mA steps for higher currents. The accuracy and repeatability of output current below 300mA is ±1%, providing the levels of control needed for applications that are very sensitive to lighting variation.

Furthermore, the innovative optical and mechanical design avoids hot points and loss in brightness. embedding multiple features in this way greatly simplifies the illumination selection process for the user, with just a few part number options to choose from. Many suppliers have over 40,000 part-numbers in their catalogues which makes selecting the right product difficult and time consuming.

Integration into machine vision systems is made easy since the FP220 can be configured using a web browser and with Ethernet or RS232 commands in the same way as Gardasoft’s other controllers. Versions compatible with Gardasoft’s triniti intelligent lighting platform are also available. The triniti platform provides an API and GigE Vision interface to control the light, and LEDs featuring a ‘triniti chip’ can exchange relevant performance data with the FP220 controller.

TPL

Modular ringlight wins gold medal award at Automaticon 2019

This simplified selection process is appreciated by all users - experts can rapidly validate their designs, beginners can learn by quickly testing various configurations, and endusers enjoy the standardised concept which limits varieties and spares stock- holding in their factories. Additionally, with only a few part number options, price and lead times are extremely competitive due to mass-series production.

At the Automaticon 2019 show in Warsaw in March, the innovative Modular ringlight range from TPl Vision won the Gold Medal Award.

The Modular ringlight product range addresses many issues users face when dealing with lighting equipment for Vision and ID applications.

This product range is an all-in-one lighting solution which provides superior imaging conditions for Machine Vision and Code reading systems. The range comes in two sizes with multiple colours and embedded features such as sector control and overdrive strobing functions, enabling innovative inspection techniques including surface effects to be used. Colour selection and sectors can be controlled by the user from the simple keyboard, or using discrete inputs which lock or enable the keyboard as required.

The colours, shapes and embedded features have been carefully selected and optimised to solve any kind of code reading application. The casing of the light incorporates mounting points for reflector attachments so the user can create Dome, low Angle and Darkfield illumination effects in addition to the powerful ringlight capabilities.

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Caroline Winn, Vice President Sales, TPL Vision

MV

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THE LARGEST EVER READERS’ SURVEY YET MVPro Magazine has just completed its largest yet readers’ survey and the results are now in.

The survey questions were sent to the magazine’s database of subscribers, which number nearly 13,000, and the response was superb.

The survey covered topics such ‘which of the following are your preferred ways to find out industry and product information’ to ‘which of the following technologies do you expect to benefit your company in the next 3 years.’

Please contact us if you require the full results, but to give you a taster, below are some of the key findings.

We started with the question, ‘Which of the following products do you purchase or recommend?’ and it was the answer cameras which was way out front, followed not too far behind with software, cables and sensors. Next came the question which grounded our readers in their respective industries and way out in front was engineering followed closely behind by electronics. Not far behind them was automotive, with logistics and food/beverage putting on a good show. And the defence sector was also well represented.

When we moved on to what machine vision applications do you focus on: process control and factory automation were neck and neck, followed by measurement/gauging, machine learning and, interestingly, robotics. Coming up not far behind them were a wide range of applications including medical imaging.

Our readers were then asked what they thought would be the most important technological development over the next five years and there was a wide array of answers, which reflects the innovative sector in which we currently operate. Not least was Artificial Intelligence, IoT, deep learning/machine learning and smart cameras.

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Mining down into what ‘macro’ level technologies might readers expect to benefit their company and the winner, convincingly, was deep learning. Embedded vision came in second, with 3D Vision next. Respondents had mixed views on whether OCR & OCV, and collaborative robots, would have an impact upon their companies. Yet, ironically, when asked the next question, were they planning to use certain technologies in their company in the next few years, collaborative robots already seemed in use.

Moving onto what factors are the most important when developing a machine vision application, ranked as important were usability, compatibility with embedded devices and easy creation of user interface.

Deep learning and AI raised their heads again as top runners when people were asked what machine vision technologies they would consider investing in. 3-D Stereo, 3-D Time of Flight, Embedded and USB 3.1 were not far behind.

Finally, within this overview, came the question, what is your preferred method of selecting your machine vision systems/components. Way out in front, with nearly half agreeing on selecting each component individually from the wider market. Next choice was the use of a distributor/solutions provider to select the components and coming up in third, was the use of a solutions provider to source components.

If you want to see more and get the actual figures of who said what, please contact Cally Bennett, Business Development Manager. MV

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UKIVA MACHINE VISION CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION It’s back to Milton Keynes shortly as we attend the third U KIVA Machine Vision Conference and Exhibition.

The show will take place on 6 June at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.

The organisers told MVPro Magazine that the event is becoming increasingly popular with attendance figures in 2018 up 17% compared to 2017.

The 2019 iteration will follow a similar format to previous years, with a programme of technical seminars supported by an exhibition featuring vision component manufacturers, vision component and system distributors and systems integrators from around the world.

The 2019 Conference will feature an additional theme, covering applications of vision in automation and robotics.

Chris Valdes, UKIVA event organiser and business development manager for the PPMA (Processing & Packaging Machinery Association), said: “At the event in 2018, a number of exhibitors included robots and cobots in their displays, which provided a great deal of interest. There have also been recent developments in the communication standards for machine vision and robots for use in Industry 4.0, making technical seminars on vision, robotics and automation even more relevant.

The Machine Vision Conference program features around 60 technical seminars across eight different subject areas: Vision in Robotics, Understanding Vision Technology, Deep Learning & Embedded Vision, 3D Vision, Optics & Illumination, Camera Technology, Systems & Applications and Vision Innovation.

The programme has been designed to provide interesting content ranging from ‘understanding vision technology’ to ‘vision innovation’. It accommodates visitors with any level of vision knowledge and experience, from those new to the subject to experts. A number of the presentations will include examples of the practical use of vision systems across a wide range of industries. Visitors are free to attend whichever talks are of the most interest and presenters will be on hand throughout the day for further discussions, providing delegates with outstanding opportunities to talk to people with experience of delivering real world vision solutions.

“UKIVA has a natural affinity with the combined use of vision and robotics as BARA (British Automation & Robotics Association) is, like UKIVA, part of the umbrella PPMA (Processing & Packaging Machinery Association) and many of our members have an active interest in BARA as well.”

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The Conference will include a focus on vision and robotics, showing how this powerful combination can improve productivity and make a significant contribution as part of Industry 4.0 and smart factories. This will feature a contribution from BARA (British Automation and Robot Association), who will also be demonstrating a working robot cell.

The Conference also provides delegates with the opportunity to explore the latest developments in core vision subjects such as camera technology and illumination and optics. There are sessions on the highly popular 3D imaging technology and newer topics such as deep learning and embedded vision as well as a thread devoted to vision systems and applications.

SLAM refers to the process of determining the position and orientation (localisation) of a sensor with respect to its surroundings, as well as simultaneously building a map of the surrounding environment. Most modern SLAM systems used today are based on vision, as they use one or more cameras as the main sensing device and visual SLAM is quickly becoming an important advancement in embedded vision with many potential applications.

Dr Luca Benedetti from Kudan has been named as the first keynote speaker for the UKIVA Machine Vision Conference and Exhibition.

Dr Benedetti will deliver a keynote address entitled: ‘Visual SLAM in the Wild.’

With Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) gaining traction in the world of industrial vision, Dr Benedetti will describe the real-world challenges of deploying a SLAM system across a variety of applications as well as designing a SLAM system that’s versatile both in terms of hardware and software.

UKIVA Chairman Allan Anderson said: “We are delighted that Dr Benedetti has agreed to speak at the Conference.

Kudan is accelerating the evolution of virtuality (AR/MR/ VR) and Robotics (automobile/drone/robot) by developing computer software algorithms classified as Artificial Perception (AP). They are pioneers in this field. With the combination of AP and AI, machines are getting closer to sensing and interacting with the world like humans do, utilising both eyes and brain.”

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SICK plans to use the 2019 UKIVA Show in Milton Keynes to show how machine vision is being demystified for a growing number of adopters, backed by greater accessibility to ‘all-in-one’ intelligent vision sensors powered by ready-made software applications.

Recently appointed as vice-chairman of UKIVA, SICK’s Neil Sandhu will deliver two presentations to delegates that put the case for removing the complexity that can surround implementing a vision solution, empowering users to set up vision systems, including more difficult 3D applications, with ease.

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“Machine vision has been a headache too far for many engineers looking to improve their production or materials handling processes with better standards of inspection.

Programming a reliable system to process the data from a vision camera has been feared in the past as something of a black art,” said Sandhu who is SICK’s UK Product Manager for Imaging, Measurement & Ranging.

There is no requirement to “teach” the camera what to look for, or for fixturing using an edges or logos. Highresolution, high-reliability and high-speed image processing are assured by hosting the solution on the SICK Inspector P vision sensor.

“But now rapid advancements in camera technology combined with intelligent on-board processing capability have brought high-performance applications within the reach of many production teams who would previously have felt excluded from them. So, the time has come to present a more accessible and democratised outlook for vision in future and to encourage more users to enjoy the benefits.”

SICK’s technology demonstrations at the Show will underline the company’s ambition for intelligent devices like the Inspector P 2D and the Trispector 1000 3D smart vision sensors to work in a similar way to smartphones powering ready-made applications that are easy to set up and use, selected via a central cloud-based repository of industry solutions.

Central to this vision is SICK’s AppSpace platform for development and pooling of software applications, for which a growing number of solutions are now being released both by SICK and by its automation partners.

On show at UKIVA will be the new 4Sight Automated Print Inspection System developed in SICK AppSpace with packaging automation specialists Autocoding Systems.

The breakthrough of 4Sight is that it communicates directly with common printer types, such as inject and laser thermal transfer. It can therefore automatically recognise and inspect the alphanumeric code applied by the printer and seamlessly continue the inspection whenever a code is updated, for example with a new date or batch number.

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SICK will also demonstrate its entry-level robot guidance solutions using smart 2D and 3D vision sensors. The Inspector PIM60 URCap integrates SICK’s Inspector PIM60 2D vision sensors with Universal Robots. Simple to set up and use, the combination delivers a powerful toolkit for creating a vision-guided robot task with minimum time and effort. Configuration is achieved in minutes through the UR controller or the SICK Inspector PIM60 without need for an additional PC. SICK’s Trispector P Beltpick is a 3D vision guidance solution for robot picking with improved z-axis control, enabling gentle handling of complex shapes and profiles, or picking products with variable heights from a conveyor, for example. The system adapts the robot’s picking action to the height of each individual product, reducing the risk of damage. With ‘plug-and-play’ support for ABB, Staubli and Universal Robots, users have access to a range of SICK AppSpace apps for belt picking applications. Other robot manufacturers can also be integrated with the new system.

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SENSOPART CELEBRATES ITS

JUBILEE “We gauge ourselves not by what is possible today, but by our vision of what can be achieved”

Sensor manufacturer SensoPart has just celebrated its 25th anniversary.

The company told MVPro Magazine that its jubilee year was celebrated in style with multiple events organised for employees, customers, partners and members of the public.

“We gauge ourselves not by what is possible today, but by our vision of what can be achieved” – this was the motto devised by SensoPart’s CEO Theodor Wanner when founding the company in 1994.

The electronics engineer with a PhD began his career with leading sensor manufacturers Pepperl & Fuchs and later Sick.

Wanner explained that SensoPart Industriesensorik has acquired an international reputation as an innovative supplier of opto-electronic sensors and image-processing vision sensors for factory automation. The company has even become a market leader in the sector of imageprocessing vision sensors, which play a key role, for example, in robotics applications.

“In our jubilee year, we want to combine work with celebrations, and have therefore devised a variety of events for our employees, customers and partners,” explained company spokesman Bernd Eckenfels. The celebrations began with an in- house party for employees on 12 April at the founding site of Wieden – one week after the official anniversary. An entire week will be dedicated to the jubilee from 24 – 29 June, under the title “SensoPart International Innovation Week.” It will be a week of celebration with customers and partners, but will also include specialist training courses and presentations on technological trends.

A key event will be held during Innovation Week.

Customers, partners, suppliers and guests from the world of politics are invited to “SensoPart Innovation Day” on 27 June. There will be training sessions and top-class scientific presentations, for example by Prof Dr Thomas Bauernhansl, Director of Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) in Stuttgart, and Prof Dr Bernd Jähne from the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific MV Computing (IWR) of Heidelberg University.

SensoPart’s customer spectrum ranges from automotive and machine construction, electronics and solar industries to pharmaceutical companies and the food sector.

It employs 210 across its home sites of Wieden and Gottenheim, as well as in its international subsidiaries in France, England, China and the USA. A new 2,600 square metre production hall was inaugurated 18 months ago on the Gottenheim site, doubling the production and logistics space.

There will be a week of celebrations in June.

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EMBEDDED VISION: SUCCESS THROUGH COLLABORATION An update from VDMA regarding a panel discussion on embedded vision which took place at the embedded world Exhibition & Conference (Nürnberg, Germany):

Hardware and software manufacturers for embedded vision components must work together to promote the effective use of this pioneering technology. The potential applications of embedded vision in combination with machine learning are enormous.

Many future applications – whether in B2C or B2B – will be based on Embedded Vision: small, integrated image processing systems that work intelligently directly from devices enabling them to see and understand. Embedded vision is made possible by compact, high-performance computing platforms that consume very little energy.

Thanks to standardized interfaces between computing platforms and image sensors, an increasing amount of image data in real time can be processed. With artificial intelligence, image processing systems are becoming even more intelligent: they are learning by themselves.

“The potential of Embedded Vision is enormous. The growing number of exhibitors and demos with an embedded vision reference, that could be seen at many of the trade fair booths, shows this”, summarized Prof Dr-Ing. Axel Sikora, chairman of the embedded world

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advisory board and chairman of the embedded world Conference. “We are delighted that VDMA Machine Vision and the embedded world have organised again a panel discussion and a dedicated track on embedded vision at the embedded world Conference. Together, we are driving this topic forward”.

According to the panelists, embedded vision technology will not completely replace traditional, PC- or smart camera-based machine vision systems in the foreseeable future. However, from a technical and economical point of view, it does offer extremely interesting solutions in a multitude of application fields. “The speed of development of the required components, from sensor boards to various embedded platforms to machine vision software for evaluation, is extremely high. As a result, embedded vision technology has now reached a level of performance that already allows the use of effective systems in many applications today,” said Dr Klaus-Henning Noffz, Chairman of the Board of VDMA Machine Vision, at the panel discussion.

An important and necessary step to make it easier for users to implement this innovative technology is that the

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manufacturers of the embedded vision components work together with regard to standardization and platform building: “If users have to assemble sensors, processors, software, and other components tediously and individually when developing solutions, the success of Embedded Vision will not reach the extent that it potentially can.”

However, various camera, embedded board and software manufacturers have already recognized this and are cooperating for the benefit of users.

Further development of the technology is supported by continuous improvements in areas related to processors as well as innovative algorithms and methods such as deep learning and artificial intelligence. On the hardware side, smaller and smaller computers with multi-core processors and lower and lower power consumption guarantee sufficient computing power. Deep learning is becoming increasingly important in the use of embedded vision systems, for example to classify defects. According to Dr Olaf Munkelt, Managing Director of MVTec Software GmbH, even complex image processing tasks can be solved efficiently in connection with suitable methods

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for image preprocessing and postprocessing. Participants of the panel discussion all agree: Embedded Vision will establish itself in numerous industries increasingly as a MV successful and cost-effective technology.

(picture: Paul Zalewski – Allied Vision Technologies; Dr Olaf Munkelt – MVTec Software; Michael Gielda – Antmicro; Jason Carlson – congatec; Tornes James – On Semiconductor)

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TOP SPEED, MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE –

NEW SENSORS ENSURE TOP PERFORMANCE IN BIN PICKING Embedded technology and quad-camera sensors ensure maximum efficiency in bin picking - an article from ISRA Vision.

Robot-guided bin picking is significantly increasing the level of automation in industrial production, while also enabling maximum flexibility. That is why another large German supplier in the automotive sector has now chosen the PowerPICK3D bin picking system. The totally new quad-camera sensor solution with top speeds in scanning and data processing takes fully automated bin picking to the next level of performance. It enables significantly higher throughput and faster cycle times than comparable solutions and other technologies. Its parts detection is highly robust, thus ensuring maximum performance even under the most difficult conditions.

Today’s high demands on quality and cost in the automotive sector require absolute efficiency and a high level of automation. ISRA’s bin picking portfolio meets these demands perfectly. With multiple cameras, the ultra-highperformance sensors scan the content of the container

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and generate a dense point cloud. This is then compared to the CAD template, enabling the systems to detect the parts to be picked and create an optimized picking order autonomously, resulting in an almost unlimited diversity of recognizable object geometries. Intelligent picking planning and the precise supply of components in the production process ensure safe processes. Furthermore, the use of embedded PCs means that data is processed extremely quickly.

One of the world’s largest automotive suppliers relies on PowerPICK3D to sort components for the chassis. Small, cylindrical metal pins – some reflective, some dark black – need to be picked individually by a robotic system in the production process. The mechanical solution used previously exhibited high wear and insufficient throughput to meet the challenge of significantly increasing quantity.

PowerPICK3D increased output and the sensor ensured

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the extremely short cycle time to be met, despite the reflective surfaces.

With its quad-camera technology, the optical sensor allows complete detection of the container even with large volumes. During this multi-stereo procedure, four integrated cameras capture the components to be picked from the container. PowerPICK3D automatically creates an optimized picking sequence and calculates the corresponding robot paths. The four cameras use the redundant images to create different perspectives, enabling reliable object detection even with shadows in the field of view or reflections from component.

technology, the sensor requires no external computer at all, omitting the need for extensive wiring between the camera and the PC and ensuring data transmission at the maximum speed possible. Combined with powerful LED lighting, this ensures the fastest possible scan times. ISRA products are compatible with all common robots and standard communication interfaces. The latest generation of PowerPICK3D offers the OPC/UA communication protocol, equipping it for the future of industrial production.

Designed as ready-to-use systems, they can also be installed easily and quickly. MV

Thanks to its fast integration and the ease of teaching new parts with CAD teach-in, the system can be up and running in no time and switch quickly between different component types. With its embedded processor

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With the CX polarization cameras, physical material properties not detectable by the human eye can be visualized and evaluated in order to optimize manufacturing processes, reduce rejects or improve quality. So they are of great value in the glass industry during the quality assurance phase in the production of glass articles such as bottles or ampoules. Thanks to their ability to capture the complete linear polarization state any mechanical residual stress that increases instability and the risk of breakage, will be reliably detected. These cameras can also be of benefit to the production process of carbon fiber fabrics for the automotive or aviation industries. The low-reflective, poorcontrasting carbon fibers are highly polarizing, which is why the grain of the fabric, the decisive factor influencing the stability of the material, can be inspected efficiently. An angular resolution of 1° is achieved by factory calibration of

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polarization. This means that the slightest deviations in the grain can be detected. The new CX cameras excel even when inspecting reflective or shiny surfaces such as metal.

By selecting a polarization direction, glossy effects can be reduced effectively, e.g. to better identify scratches or to be MV able to read codes reliably.

CONTACT DETAILS A: Badstrasse 30 · 01454 Radeberg · Germany W: www.baumer.com/cameras/CX T: +49 3528 4386 0

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& EXHIBITION 6 June 2019 Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes, UK

60 technical seminars for specialists, engineers, or those new to industrial machine vision

• DEEP LEARNING & EMBEDDED VISION • VISION IN ROBOTICS • 3D VISION • CAMERA TECHNOLOGY • OPTICS & ILLUMINATION

An exhibition of the latest technology from world leading industrial vision companies

• SYSTEMS & APPLICATIONS • UNDERSTANDING VISION TECHNOLOGY • VISION INNOVATION

Official event publication

FREE

to attend

FREE

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REGISTER TO ATTEND

@UKIVAconfex

machinevisionconference.co.uk

Enquiries Chris Valdes (chris.valdes@ppma.co.uk) Tel: +44 (0) 20 8773 5517

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20 YEARS OF LIGHT CONTROL: GARDASOFT VISION CELEBRATES It would be fair to say that the lighting sector has come of age. No longer is lighting control just an unplanned afterthought at the end of a project. The company which has led this change is Gardasoft Vision, based in Cambridge, U K. Gardasoft, which has a long history of solving lighting problems, has won many fans in the machine vision industry.

Jools Hudson, the company’s Head of Marketing, tells us how the company enhanced the capabilities of lighting over the last 20 years.

team who realised there was a general need, throughout the machine vision industry, for reliable lighting controllers.

They quickly created the 2-channel PP600 lighting controller to be user-friendly and compatible with nearly any LED lighting assembly available. And, 20 years later, the PP600 is still in use.

Gardasoft, the machine vision control company was born.

It was back in 1999 when Gardasoft was founded by Peter Bhagat and he’s still around, as CTO of Gardasoft. Peter remembers their early days: “I set up Gardasoft with a colleague to carry out machine vision system integration.

However, even back then it was clear that controlling machine vision lighting is much trickier than people think.

At that time, systems integrators never formally funded or planned lighting control but it always ended up taking a lot of time. They often used a simple power potentiometer in box.”

The very first lighting controller was designed

by Gardasoft for their own use. The turning point came in 2000 when a company in Ireland asked to buy Gardasoft’s controller. This was a total light-bulb moment for the

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TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION Gardasoft Vision began as a consultancy and this ethos of working closely with customers has stayed with the company to guide its technology innovation. Before Gardasoft, lights were rarely overdriven because of worries about damaging the light. Gardasoft’s SafeSenseTM technology enables LEDs to be safely overdriven to achieve maximum possible light output without risk of damage.

The PP600 lighting controller was considerably ahead of its time, capable of delivering 10A in pulse mode at a time when most LEDs could operate with only 2-3 A pulses.

Because of the power and versatility of the Gardasoft PP series, they quickly became an industry standard for lighting control. When LEDs eventually ‘caught up’ and even higher power was needed, the HT series was developed to deliver 50A pulses.

Further innovation yielded the RT, RC and HT series of lighting controllers with to 16 channels. These products

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offer capabilities including precise timing control for submicrosecond control and very high current pulsing. The RT series of controllers include SafePower™ which was a unique technology to enable any light to be operated from a standard 24v dc power supply. This removes the need to dissipate large amounts of power through the controller.

The firmware base of SafePowerTM technology provides huge flexibility in the operating mode to suit almost every application. Over 100 different sequencing modes have been developed for the RT series of lighting controllers.

Gardasoft has been responsible for many technology innovations. The company included Ethernet connectivity in its controllers two years before the introduction of the GigE Vision standard and then went on to pioneer GigE for nonimaging devices. Gardasoft proposed the SFNC naming convention for lighting controllers within GenICam which was ratified 2 years ago. Prior to the introduction of GigE Vision, triggering was usually handled by the system frame grabber. However, as GigE Vision doesn’t require a frame grabber, alternative local triggering options were needed, so Gardasoft developed the CC320 Trigger Timing Controller can be installed near the production line to unite lighting, cameras, proximity sensors and encoders in an automated sequencing solutionProduct innovation continued and the recent demand for very fast encoders, particularly for linescan applications, was satisfied by new variants of the CC320 which can operate at up to 200kHz.

INTELLIGENT CONTROL TECHNOLOGY Peter Bhagat realised that the future of machine vision lies in the close integration of lighting, camera and imaging software. Gardasoft worked closely with lighting manufacturers software companies to bring the trinitiTM intelligent lighting technology to market in 2014. This provides the user with one single graphical interface to control and interface with lighting, camera and imaging software. Since then, Gardasoft have extended their control capabilities to cover liquid lens control, motorised lens control and embedded lighting control.

GARDASOFT LIGHTING In 2009 the company licensed a range of high-power line lights and traffic strobes. Developments since then include increasing the number of LEDs and integrating control technology into the light – the only company to offer this capability.

TAKING THE NEXT STEP By 2013 the company had grown significantly and in 2016 it became part of the multi-national OPTEX Group.

This important development phase for the company provided the opportunity to develop relationships and ideas with other OPTEX Group members such as the lighting manufacturers CCS Inc, Raytec and Effilux. These partnerships are certain to result in enhanced component connectivity and capability.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Gardasoft is benefiting from working closely with partners, both within OPTEX and beyond, to further enhance the capabilities of its products. The new CEO, Hiroshi Miyazawa, who previously worked for CCS, joined the company at the beginning of 2019 and is ideally placed to foster this cooperation. Earlier in 2019, Gardasoft’s was delighted to announce its award-winning OLED panel controller which was designed specifically for the new CCS OLED lights.

Looking to the future, the company continues to innovate and has recently launched a new series of high-frequency, high-power LED controllers which also has outstanding low-current performance: the FP series. Looking forward, factors such as ease of use, built-in controllers and enhanced connectivity will be driving forces in moving towards systems where users will have the flexibility to use MV their own software.

CONTACT DETAILS E: jools.hudson@gardasoft.com W: http://www.gardasoft.com T: +44 1954 234984

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HIGH END IMAGING CAMERAS | GRABBERS | PROCESSING

T: +49 (0) 8142 44841-0 | W: www.rauscher.de | E: info@rauscher.de

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NEW HIGH-RESOLUTION EXO CAMERAS WITH UP TO 31 MEGAPIXEL FOR QUALITY CONTROL SVS-Vistek adds to its extensive industrial camera range of highresolution USB3 cameras with small-form factor: In the first quarter of 2019, the company will be introducing ten new USB3 models of the EXO camera series (exo342, exo367, exo387) with resolutions of 31, 19 and 17 megapixels that are all based on the newest generation of Sony’s Pregius 2 CMOS sensors. These new sensors with large, square pixels of 3.45 µm edge length are very light sensitive and offer an extremely high dynamic range.

The CMOS sensors of the EXO Series can be operated with numerous cost-effective lenses. With their front-panel section of 58 x 58 mm, the new product introductions ideally cover sensor sizes up to APS-C and Four-Thirds. For the new high resolution models, one can also choose from variations in the EXO Series of the M42-Mount as well as the SVS-Vistek supported MFT-Mount for focusable lenses. The large pixel size of 3.45 x 3.45 µm works well with our wideselection of excellent lenses from which you can choose to ensure the right optic for your application – enabling cost-effective solutions from a single source.

Despite their high resolutions, the new EXO camera models allow frame rates of 11.5 images/s, 18.5 images/s and 21.5 images/s at a maximum USB3 bandwidth of 360 MB/s net.

The result of this is short image transmission time which allows plenty of margin for the image to be processed or analyzed and the next picture to be taken. Even higher frame rates will be reached in Q2 in the HR Series with the high-performance interfaces 10GigE and CoaXPress.

In addition to the impressive camera performance, the highly integrated cameras of the EXO Series offer an integrated 4-channel flash controller that saves the user the need for an additional device, thus decreasing costs.

Extensive sequencer functions, the specially milled case with extraordinary sensor and adjustment quality, as well as an excellent temperature management ensures consistent results over a wide temperature range.

In special Tracer versions of the EXO cameras, MFT lenses (Micro-Four-Thirds) can be cost-effectively controlled by GenICam commands and allow focus, zoom, and iris to be reset for new tasks within milliseconds. These tracer variants

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take over the complete control of the lighting and lens.

All timings for sensor, lighting and lens come out of the camera and are controlled by a single GenICam interface.

The user therefore benefits from a fast and efficient integration into the application, as with all EXO models.

The new generation of Pregius sensors from Sony will be available in the first quarter of 2019, and the SVS-Vistek cameras based on them will be released at the end of Q1. The compact footprint and outstanding picture quality make these new cameras optimal for many high-resolution applications, among others in the branches apparatus construction, traffic technology, photogrammetry, surveying, aerial mapping, high-end security technology as well as for the inspection of solar MV panels, wafers and displays.

The new EXO model with M42 mount (left) and the new EXO Tracer with MFT mount (right).

CONTACT DETAILS A: SVS-Vistek GmbH, Mühlbachstr. 20, 82229 Seefeld, Germany E: info@svs-vistek.com W: www.svs-vistek.com T: +49 8152 9985-0

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SPONSORED

MODULAR AND FLEXIBLE

3D CAMERA SYSTEM FOR ROBOT APPLICATIONS The Ensenso range of 3D stereo cameras from I DS Imaging Development Systems GmbH can be used in a wide range of applications from factory automation (such as bin picking) to warehouse and logistics automation (such as pallet picking) and even furniture assembly!

The latest Ensenso X camera family provides great versatility for imaging at working distances up to 5 metres and of objects with volumes of several cubic metres. Each Ensenso X 3D camera system consists of a projector unit, two IDS GigE uEye cameras either with 1.3 MP or 5 MP monochrome CMOS sensors, mounting brackets and various adjustment angles, three lenses as well as cables to connect the camera with the projector unit. They are also available with a choice of IP 30 or IP65/67 protection. The Ensenso X30 series is designed for use on moving objects, while the Ensenso X36 series features more advanced Flexview projection technology for use on static objects with improved spatial resolution.

3D STEREO IMAGING All Ensenso 3D cameras use the “Projected Texture Stereo Vision� method. Each model uses two CMOS sensors and a projector that casts a structured light pattern onto the object of interest to increase the accuracy of the surface image. The two cameras acquire images from the object from two different angles. Special matching algorithms

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compare the two images, search for corresponding points and visualize all point displacements in a Disparity Map. Knowing the system geometry, PC-based software converts these disparities into length units using the triangulation principle.

The 3D coordinates of each image pixel can be determined, resulting in a 3D point cloud of the object. All Ensenso models feature a high intensity structured light projector to enhance surface texture. Some also feature FlexView technology which allows the light pattern projected onto the test object to be moved, thus generating a series of images with different surface texture structures. Sequence correlation algorithms then calculate the 3D object data from up to 16 pairs of these images to increase accuracy. This approach allows even transparent or reflective object parts to be reliably detected.

ENSENSO CAMERAS IN ACTION IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY Ensenso cameras have been deployed in a wide range of robot applications across many different industries.

Two recent examples from the automotive industry include automated trimming of car seat foam headrests and armrests and checking the geometry of die cast components. The automated foam solution was developed by a French systems integrator, Gips Vision, for

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Adient, who are a world leading manufacturer of car seats and other car interior components. Designed to reduce waste and increase the effectiveness of the manufacturing process, the system features two robot cells. In the first cell, an Ensenso 3D camera first identifies the object. The robot moves around the product and the camera generates a 3D point cloud from the foam headrests or armrests. The resulting 360° image of the foam product is compared with a given 3D model. The exact position of the trim curve on the actual foam surface is then determined point by point. In the second cell, the robot trims the product with a grinding tool using the data determined in the first cell.

The system is accurate to 0.2 mm and delivers a noticeable improvement in quality.

a robot that can independently assemble the individual components of a ‘Stefan ‘chair from IKEA. The robot also features two robot arms equipped with grippers for picking up objects. The robot starts the assembly process by taking 3D images of the parts lying on the ground to create a map of the estimated positions of the various components.

Using a calibration plate, the Ensenso software ensures that the position of the camera coordinate system is determined with respect to the component base coordinate system, enabling the robot’s hand to precisely reach each component. The robot can assemble the chair without intervention in just 8 minutes and 55 seconds

FURTHER ENSENSO DEVELOPMENTS Die cast parts made of aluminium and magnesium alloys, such as engine components, transmission housings, chassis parts and tailgate frames help reduce vehicle weight in the automotive industry. A system from VisionTools Bildanalyse Systeme GmbH, Germany, with integrated image processing uses an Ensenso 3D camera to record the geometry of each individual cast component and check its condition and completeness. The system also checks that the production tool is completely emptied after removal so that it is not destroyed the next time it is filled due to residual material and the high pressing force.

Mounted directly in the production line the Ensenso 3D camera checks the correct condition and completeness of all sprues, casting beans, runs, channels or feeders.

Depending on the size and position of the component, several images are required to check all beans, slugs and sprues and the robot moves the component in front of the camera accordingly. The image acquisition and evaluation takes between 0.3 and 1.2 seconds per component position.

ASSEMBLING AN IKEA CHAIR

IDS is taking Ensenso technology forward another step with the announcement of the Ensenso XR series, which is the first model to feature on-board processing. This enables faster calculation of 3D point clouds which are directly transmitted via Gigabit Ethernet or WiFi to a host PC for further analysis. Direct transfer of the 3D data reduces network bandwidth and load on the connected PC. Another advantage of the new camera series is that if data is transmitted via WiFi, only one cable (for power supply) needs to be connected to the camera. This could MV be very useful for cameras installed on a robot arm.

CONTACT DETAILS A: Claudia Kirsch, IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH, Dimbacher Str. 6-8, 74182 Obersulm / Germany E: c.kirsch@ids-imaging.de W: www.ids-imaging.com T: +44 (0)1763 262621

Another impressive example of the use of Ensenso cameras has been demonstrated by scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore who have developed

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NEW CUSTOM ON-BOARD FPGA PROCESSING FOR COAXLINK FRAME GRABBERS Euresys present its new custom on-board FPGA processing for Coaxlink frame grabbers.

Euresys present its new custom on-board FPGA processing for Coaxlink frame grabbers. CustomLogic is an FPGA design kit enabling the design and upload of FPGA code to a Coaxlink board. It is compatible with the Coaxlink Octo and Coaxlink Quad CXP-12. Up to 70% of their Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale XCKU035 FPGA resources are available. The design phase uses the Xilinx Vivado development tools.

CustomLogic is the ideal solution for full custom even proprietary code.

CustomLogic Design and upload your own FPGA code to the Coaxlink board AT A GLANCE •

FPGA design kit enabling the design and upload of FPGA code to a Coaxlink board

•

Supported by Xilinx Vivado development tool

•

Available for Coaxlink Octo and Coaxlink Quad CXP-12

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70% of Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale XCKU035 FPGA resources available

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Access to CoaXPress camera pixel stream

•

2GB DDR4 on-board memory

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PCIe 3.0 (Gen 3) x8 bus DMA to host PC (6,700 MB/s bus bandwidth)

•

Memento Event Logging messaging

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Device drivers for Windows, Linux and macOS

Visit: https://www.euresys.com/custom-logic Please do not hesitate to contact your Euresys Sales Manager for further information. MV

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ON

SI VI E E IN AR H AC TW M OF S

CO N

VE V RT IDE ER O S

S E ER M B A B FR RA G

IP

CO R

ES

S EO ER D V VI ER S

Euresys is a leading and innovative high-tech company, designer and provider of image and video acquisition components, frame grabbers, FPGA IP cores and image processing software. Euresys is active in the computer vision, machine vision, factory automation, medical imaging and video surveillance markets.

The company’s image acquisition expertise covers analog and digital video acquisition, FPGA programming, high-frequency electronics, video compression and streaming, and also camera control. Recently strengthened by the acquisition of the company Sensor to Image, its 30 years of imaging know-how includes GigE Vision, USB3 Vision, CoaXPress, Camera Link and GenICam. In terms of image analysis, Euresys’ skills apply to blob detection, sub-pixel measurement, pattern matching, color analysis, optical character recognition, barcode reading and verification, 3D inspection and classification using deep learning.

www.euresys.com - sales@euresys.com

More at www.euresys.com

High in Quality and

Features HR series

16-122

10

MP MP

SHR series

47-151 MP MP

EXO Tracer

2 - 20 MP MP

EXO series

1.6 - 31 MP MP

The perfect Picture for your Application. > CMOS or CCD sensor > Four LED light controller > 256 – 512 MB of Burst Mode Buffer (GigE only) > Sequencer, PLC, Safe Trigger > Extended operating temperature range: -10 up to 60°C

www.svs-vistek.com

SVS-Vistek GmbH / Germany +49 (0)8152 9985-0 info@svs-vistek.com

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE OF ROBOTICS RELY ON?

CHALLENGING ROBOT ENVIRONMENTS

LATEST ROBO BUSINESS NEWS

ISSUE 07 - JUNE 2019

AUTOMATE DANCES TO A NEW TUNE

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ROBOTICS PROFESSIONAL

ROBOPRO TEAM

CONTENTS 4

ED’S WELCOME - The Global Robo Expo.

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NEWS - Catch-up on the industry.

Publishing Director alex.sullivan@mvpromedia.eu

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LMI - 3D smart sensor technology.

Cally Bennett

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AUTOMATE - Automate discovers a new soul.

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CANONICAL - Why the future of robotics relies on a secure iot ecosystem.

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ROBO BUSINESS - Round up of the news.

Neil Martin Editor-in-Chief neil.martin@mvpromedia.eu

Alex Sullivan

Group Business Manager cally.bennett@mvpromedia.eu

Sean Welch Sales Manager sean.welch@mvpromedia.eu

Rachel Bray Head of Design rachel.bray@cliftonmedialab.com

Georgie Davey Junior Designer georgie.davey@cliftonmedialab.com

Visit our website for daily updates

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MVPro Media is published by IFA Magazine Publications Ltd, Arcade Chambers, 8 Kings Road, Bristol BS8 4AB Tel: +44 (0)117 3258328 © 2019. All rights reserved ‘MVPro Media’ is a trademark of IFA Magazine Publications Limited. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any printed or electronic retrieval system without prior permission. All material has been carefully checked for accuracy, but no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies.

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THE GLOBAL ROBO EXPO The Global Robo Expo, which is held every year in Spain, was an interesting show in many ways.

It’s certainly not what you would call on the main route of robotic exhibitions and nothing like the size of Automate.

Indeed, when I arrived at the windy venue on the outskirts of Madrid in early May, it looked like a ghost town. Okay, I had arrived at 9.30am when the doors opened at 10am and okay, I first wandered into the wrong exhibition (on plastics, not robots) and got thrown out, but it looked like it would be me and a couple of cleaners trawling through the 100 odd booths.

gets the blame. WeAreCobots could be the way UR and its partners make a serious statement about the quality of their products and services to the fledgling cobot market.

Which makes for a fascinating story as the market develops from niche to mainstream.

As always, any thoughts, give me a shout.

All the best, Neil Martin

I needn’t have worried, things got busier over the next few hours and it quickly became apparent that the footfall, although not massive, seemed to be of a high quality.

Booths were busy and there were plenty of handshakes.

Which was a good thing, because the robot industry seems particularly keen on marketing their wares via trade shows, perhaps unsure, in a still developing industry, how to promote their message in other forms of media. I guess the trade show format offers comfort in the fact that there is something physical to demo, and you will get people come and talk to you.

What was very interesting was a separate piece of real estate within the show that was an initiative from Universal Robots. It was labelled WeAreCobots. The area, of around 800 square metres, was made up of 25 UR partners, and was, said UR: “...born with the aim of making known the possibilities offered by the collaboration between humans and robots in the work processes, as well as analyzing future trends and the latest innovations in this field.”

Word was that it was also a positioning statement.

Competition is getting greater within the cobot space, more players want to play and that is driving down prices, and quality. There is a worry that in the rush for sales, certain cobot accessory companies are not maintaining quality standards and if a cobot fails because of poor endof-arm tooling for example, then the whole piece of kit

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Editor Neil Martin Editor neil.martin@mvpromedia.eu Arcade Chambers, 8 Kings Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4AB MVPro B2B digital platform and print magazine for the global machine vision industry RoboPro B2B digital platform and print magazine for the global robotics industry www.mvpromedia.eu

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MIR 1000 RANGE ON OFFER FROM RARUK RARUK Automation is now offering the MiR 1000 range.

The MiR 1000 extends the payload capacity of the fleet to 1000kg making it the perfect choice for heavier pallets said RARUK, providing a safe and efficient alternative to traditional forklifts and trucks.

safety features including dynamic safe zone monitoring that ensures the robots manoeuvre efficiently around people and objects, even in highly dynamic environments.

With optional pallet lifts, the MiR 1000 can pick up and transport Euro and other pallets onto pallet stations ensuring their smooth and seamless delivery to the destination. Flexible deployment for different tasks is made possible by a choice of top modules which allow a wide range of items to be transported.

Both the MiR 500 and MiR 1000 operate without the need to change the layout of the warehouse or factory as the function of guidewires, magnets and QR codes is replaced by sophisticated navigation software. They are also designed to be collaborative and have multiple built-in

ROBOROCK TARGETS EUROPE Chinese intelligent home robots company Roborock is targeting Europe as it plans for significant growth over the next two years.

designed, effective devices that make their homes smarter, freeing up more time to live their lives better,” said Richard Chang, founder and CEO of Roborock.

The company was founded in 2014 with investment from Xiaomi amongst other investors, and specialises in the research, development, and production of smart home appliances, specifically robot vacuum cleaners.

“Roborock is now focused on expanding its footprint in Europe with the belief that we can add value to a market where there is growing demand for smart home devices and in particular, robot vacuum cleaners. Our upcoming product launches will focus primarily on key European countries and promise to demonstrate real innovation in areas of intelligence, powerful cleaning, and convenience,” added Chang.

Roborock’s products include the bestselling robot vacuums in China. Since launching its flagship model, the Roborock S5, and its E series line-up internationally in 2018, the company has experienced significant growth, with 173% increase in sales revenue year-on-year and net profit equivalent to 10% of revenue.

“European consumers are very tech-savvy and have high disposable incomes that they are willing to spend on well-

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The company already has a presence in Europe through a number of retailers, including Amazon, MediaMarkt and Fnac Darty.

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ROBOTIQ INTRODUCES NEW PRODUCTS Gripper company Robotiq has introduced its newest products for manufacturers looking to automate packaging, palletising, and sanding applications.

Included in the new lineup is an expanded range of highquality grippers. The company said that its AirPick and EPick give manufacturers full control over their automation process, while being easy to programme, fast to install and fully customisable.

Robotiq also explained that its new Sanding Kit turns a multi-hour, multi-day programming job into a five-minute

task. It said the only hardware and software solution for Universal Robots that enables manufacturers to save hours of programming time, increase quality and productivity and ensure consistent force is applied at each cycle.

Jean-Philippe Jobin, CTO and co-founder of Robotiq, said: “AirPick, EPick and the Robotiq Sanding Kit were all engineered with helping manufacturers start production faster in mind. We wanted to support manufacturers in automating their cobot applications by offering solutions that are easy to use, safe, and flexible.”

WINNERS OF THE 2019 ENGELBERGER ROBOTICS AWARD ANNOUNCED The Robotic Industries Association (RIA), the industry’s North American trade organisation, has announced the winners of the 2019 Engelberger Robotics Awards.

It is considered the world’s most prestigious robotics honour.

The winners are Catherine Morris, group leader and director of automotive sales at ATI Industrial Automation and long-time RIA board member and former chairperson, and Dr Howie Choset, robotics professor at Carnegie Mellon University and co-founder of the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute.

The award is named for Joseph F Engelberger, known throughout the world as the ”father of robotics.”

Engelberger was founder and president of Unimation., the world’s first industrial robot manufacturer.

The Engelberger Robotics Awards are presented to individuals for excellence in technology development, application, education and leadership in the robotics industry. Each winner receives a $5,000 honorarium and commemorative medallion with the inscription: “Contributing to the advancement of the science of robotics in the service of mankind.” The awards recognise outstanding individuals from all over the world. Since the award’s inception in 1977, it has been bestowed upon 128 robotics leaders from 17 different nations.

Catherine Morris is honoured in the category of Leadership.

“I can think of very few people in the history of the robotics industry who have been as committed to the growth of our industry as Catherine,” said Jeff Burnstein, RIA President. “In addition to helping build ATI into a global leader in robotic

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accessories and robot arm tooling, she has been a tireless advocate of robotics and the important role that groups like RIA play within it. In fact, over the past two decades she’s found time to hold virtually every key position in our trade group, from Membership Committee Chair, to Automate Show Committee Chair, to overall Chair of RIA (the first and only woman to hold that role to date), and now serves as a board member of our parent group, the Association for Advancing Automation. She’s also been an outstanding role model and mentor for women in robotics — getting more women involved in robotics will be a key to the long-term success of the industry. In her role at ATI since 1995, she has positively impacted the success of robotics end users, robot manufacturers, and system integrators through her high degree of process and mechatronic knowledge.”

Dr Howie Choset will receive the award for Education. “In addition to being an inspiring professor in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon, Dr Choset has lead key research efforts to help solve significant problems in diverse areas such as surgery, manufacturing, infrastructure inspection and search rescue,” Burnstein said. “Additionally, he has co-founded several companies, including Medrobotics for surgical system, Hebi Robotics for modular robots, and Bito Robotics for autonomous guided vehicles.

His FDA-approved surgical snake robot has been in use in the US and Europe since 2015. Add to that his role as a co-founder of the ARM Institute that is aimed at advancing technology development and education for robotics in manufacturing, and his role as a founding editor of the journal Science Robotics, and you see that Dr Choset is well-deserving of our industry’s highest honor.”

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BIG DATA SITS ALONGSIDE THE MCDONALD’S BIG MAC McDonald’s is about to super size its artificial intelligence.

The famous fast food chain is buying Israeli start-up Dynamic Yield for a rumoured price tag of some $300m.

For that its gets AI which can automatically change menus to suit the time of day and weather. The idea is that it will bring data-driven mean choices for its huge, global customer base, which numbers over 60 million every day.

McDonald’s chief executive Steve Easterbrook is keen on the technology mainly because it will help flatten out the peaks and troughs of food demand, and the help his outlets develop a much more personalised service.

William Hill and IKEA have been past users of Dynamic Yield technology.

The system would be able to tell customers which of its products are trending on a particular day, at a particular hour. It will also use camera recognition technology to spot the cars of regular customers and provide them with their usual choices.

US drive-through outlets are thought to be implementing the technology first.

RARUK INTRODUCES PICK-IT M-HD HIGH DEFINITION 3D CAMERA RARUK Automation has introduced a high definition 3D camera to its Pick-it 3D Robot Vision system which was launched at last year’s PPMA Show.

The Pick-it M-HD high definition 3D camera can detect almost any small and medium size objects, made from any material, with even higher accuracy said the company.

Pick-it allows any camera supported automation application to be built without expert help. There’s no need for complicated programming. And Pick-it guides the robot to see, pick and place products from bins, boxes, pallets and tables onto a CNC machine, assembly line, conveyor belt, welding station or work bench.

The system can also be connected to the internet for remote monitoring, extending Pick-it’s potential for lights out operation and integration into the smart factory environment. And as Pick-it can find parts in any location and layout there is no need for a bulky feeding line with inflexible and expensive elements.

As with the other Pick-it cameras in the range, the new M-HD model uses structured light to calculate the 3D images. The big advantage of this over the traditional 2D camera is that it does not require special lighting and is immune to reflections.

RARUK told RoboPro Magazine that simply show an example part to the plug-and-play camera, save this into the teach detection engine, tell Pick-it where to look with a click and drag tool and Pick-it will guide the robot to the nearest pickable part. A typical detection cycle takes less than a second and Pick-it can find multiple parts in one cycle.

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CIMCORP TO OPEN NEW OFFICE IN CHENNAI, INDIA Cimcorp (Ulvila, Finland) a manufacturer and integrator of turnkey robotic handling solutions, will open a new office in Chennai, India, this June.

service network we provide in partnership with our parent company, Murata Machinery Ltd.”

It will, Cimcorp told RoboPro Magazine, enable the company to serve Asian customers better and faster, and, as an addition to the group’s existing locations in Asia, the new Indian office supports its growth strategy.

The company added that its decision to establish a base in Chennai is in response to growing demand for automation in India’s tire industry and strengthens the company’s position as a leader in material flow automation for tire manufacturing.

Masatoshi Wakabayashi, CEO at Cimcorp: “The decision to expand our presence into India is a logical step at this point. Our office is located in Chennai to enhance our ability to serve both current and future customers in India.

The facility will also be our customer support location for Indian clients,enabling us to expand the comprehensive

Cimcorp has appointed Pekka Natri as Head of Operations in India. He has a long track record in international business, and has worked in India before – first during the 1990s and then for a longer period in 2007-2011. “I am excited to step into this role and help Cimcorp to reinforce its presence in Asia,” he said.

THE MEARM ROBOT ARM KIT LAUNCHES The MeArm robot arm kit has been launched to inspire children and adults to enter the world of robotics engineering.

Kitronik, its creator, is an electronics company that specialises in developing project kits for schools and the maker community Kitronik said that The MeArm is an easy to build robot arm kit which can be built with nothing but enthusiasm and a screwdriver. The only tool necessary is a hex key which comes with the kit! It enables users to build, code and then control their own robotic arm, similar to those used in engineering and manufacturing. Imaginations can run wild as the power of the MeArm robot is set to work on functional tasks when combined with other models and construction kits.

It has been designed from the ground up to be easy to build and use and to be relevant to all experience levels, with simple coding capability which means enthusiastic schoolchildren (and their teachers!) can begin coding the device as soon as it is built. Its compatibility with the BBC micro:bit, Arduino and Raspberry Pi ,and its use of different coding editors, means that MeArm can suit every ability level.

The MeArm can be controlled directly through the onboard joy sticks or it can be made to move using one of the programming languages supported by the BBC micro:bit, Arduino or Raspberry Pi.

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Kitronik co-Founder and Director, Kevin Spurr said: “What better way of inspiring children to become interested in robotics, technology, engineering and programming than by enabling them, with the help of their teachers, to create their own version of a piece of technology that is used in the real world, and in careers that they could be inspired to enter into.”

“We believe that children should begin to learn to code as early as possible and have therefore deliberately kept the coding language simple and accessible. We hope that everyone will enjoy this introduction into the world of robotics.”

The MeArm has been developed over the last five years

by Dr Ben Gray who has since joined Kitronik to oversee the product’s further development. Kitronik has struck an exclusive deal with Dr Gray to manufacture and distribute the MeArm as part of their range of BBC micro:bit, Adruino and Raspberry Pi compatible electronics kits and accessories.

Dr Gray added: “I am pleased to see the MeArm project come to life and I look forward to seeing more students and makers using the device. My aim for the MeArm was for it to be accessible and easy to build so I am confident that enthusiastic electronics experts of the future will have fun with the device and, hopefully, develop a love for robotics and coding.”

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FANUC UK EXPANDS M-20ID AND ARC MATE 120ID SERIES FANUC UK has expanded its range of industrial robots with two new models: the M-20iD/25 handling robot, and the ARC Mate 120iD welding version.

Controlled by the R-30iB Plus Controller, both new robots are characterised by higher axis speeds and a large working area relative to previous models.

The M-20iD/25 is suited to handling tasks including loading and unloading machines, and parts manipulation. Its slim, lightweight design, combined with a compact arm and wrist, is designed to provide maximum reach even in crowded production environments.

It is capable of lifting payloads of up to 25kg at a range of 1,831mm. It also has an IP67 protection rating, suitable for applications under adverse environmental conditions, such as grinding or deburring.

The ARC Mate 120iD, in possession of a maximum payload and range identical to that of the M-20iD/25, is designed for welding applications. As with the M-20iD/25, the ARC Mate 120iD has a slim, articulated design, allowing it to weld in narrow machine tools and jigs.

“With its superior dynamics and seamlessly integrated welding equipment, the ARC Mate 120iD will ensure that customer productivity increases,” FANUC’s UK Sales and Marketing Manager, Andy Armstrong said. “Customers can also be confident of reduced assembly effort and lower operating costs thanks to smooth surfaces and recessed bolts, which aid in preventing dirt build-up.

“The introduction of the M-20iD/25, alongside the ARC Mate 120iD, represents our determination to provide customers with a comprehensive range of robot solutions.

Both robots are uniquely suited to operating in tight environments, able to reach closer to their own base than predecessor models with an active stroke range of 1,585mm.”

TECHMETICS LAUNCHES TWO NEW LINES OF AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS IN THE US Singapore-based Techmetics has launched two new lines of autonomous robots in the US.

The robots are divided into two main groups: •

Techi Butlers deliver guests packages, food and beverage orders, linens and towels. They engage with users through a touch screen interface which allows them to speak in different languages as well as call or text users to their cell phones;

•

Techi Cart series consists of a food cart, linen cart and a high payload cart which autonomously pick up and drop off linens and food carts. Each cart model can facilitate back-of-house services from areas such as laundry rooms, kitchens and housekeeping departments. The Techi Carts can deliver between 220 pounds to 550 pounds depending on the model.

The company told Robopro Magazine that with the Techi Butler and Techi Cart series, they hope to “..revolutionize service in the hospitality and healthcare industries.”

Using its proprietary technology, the Singapore-based said it has introduced the first-ever fleet of multi-point delivery robots with a multilevel fleet management system in the US. The robots are programmed to navigate autonomously through multiple floors and ride the elevators, transforming the way people receive room service while efficiently assisting housekeeping departments and kitchen staff with bulk delivery needs.

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SPONSORE D FEATU RE

SCANNING GLASS AND OTHER SPECULAR SURFACES WITH 3D SMART SENSOR TECHNOLOGY

Glass enclosures are rapidly becoming the standard in mobile device design such as cell phones, tablets, and watches. This is primarily driven by the larger trend toward 5G connectivity, where use of metal enclosures interfere with signal strength.

Glass, shiny metal, and plastics pose a major challenge for quality control inspection as these materials are highly specular and not well-suited to traditional laser measurement technologies.

TYPES OF SURFACE REFLECTIVITY There are two main types of surface reflection relevant to quality inspection. First, specular (i.e., shiny) materials such as glass and highly polished metal reflect light in a single direction, like a mirror. Second, on diffuse materials such as plastic, reflected light scatters in a multitude of directions.

Both types of reflection cause noise in 3D scan data. And, in many consumer electronics (CE) scanning applications, specular and diffuse materials have to be scanned at the same time.

tolerances. This requires a sensor that can sample data at 8 microns across a gap (X resolution) and deliver repeatable height data down to 0.2 microns (Z performance) to measure offset.

Other critical requirements for the sensor in this application include low sensitivity to the target angle; the ability to eliminate noise caused by laser scattering at the edge of the target surface; accurate measurement of different surface types (e.g., coated, glossy, transparent); and a low total cost of ownership. In addition, scanning and inspection must be carried out at speeds greater than 5 kHz in order to handle a continuous flow of production.

THE CHALLENGE The problem is that no solution on the market meets all of these application requirements. Standard laser profilers are highly sensitive to target angle and are therefore unable to generate sufficient data on specular surfaces. Coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) use probes that cannot measure the narrow gaps between glass and frame.

Confocal technologies are relatively large and expensive with limited fields of view and measurement range.

THE SMART 3D SOLUTION FOR SCANNING GLASS

APPLICATION EXAMPLE: CELL PHONE COVER GLASS ASSEMBLY In this application, a laser sensor has to scan the cell phone glass edge and generate high-resolution 3D data. The data is then used to extract edge and gap features, and to measure flushness and offset of the glass and metal frame

THE REQUIREMENTS High resolution is required for this application in order to accurately measure demanding flushness and offset

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GOCATORÂŽ 2512 SCANS EDGE OF THE CELL PHONE COVER GLASS To address this market need, LMI released the GocatorÂŽ 2512, a new breed of smart 3D laser line profiler precision-engineered to scan glass and other specular surfaces such as polished metals and plastics. This sensor not only provides high-performance glass inspection, but overcomes the aforementioned limitations of standard line and point laser profile sensors, CMMs, and confocal scanners.

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SPONSORE D FEATU RE

The 2512 delivers superior 3D data on glass and other specular surfaces at 8 microns X resolution and 0.2 microns Z repeatability, with onboard software to not only scan but carry out measurement and decisionmaking at speeds up to 10 kHz. Specialized laser projection technology allows the 2512 sensor to be mounted at a variety of surface angles for superior performance on a wider range of surface materials (e.g., anti-glare, coated/uncoated, low/high contrast, transparent, glossy).

PRECISION-ENGINEERED FOR SCANNING GLASS and Other Specular Surfaces

GOCATOR® 2512 CAN EVEN SCAN SPECULAR AND DIFFUSE MATERIALS SIMULTANEOUSLY. The sensor scans the glass and metal frame simultaneously

THE IMPLEMENTATION A Gocator® 2512 laser line profiler scans the edge of the glass in its frame, generating high-resolution 3D scan data, and then applies built-in measurement tools to inspect for gap, flush, and offset.

The high-resolution 3D scan of the glass edge (top). Built-in measurement tools are then used for identifying the glass and frame edges and applying flushness and offset measurements (bottom).

THE SOLUTION IS SMART 3D 2D technology cannot be used for cell phone glass assembly inspection because 2D vision is unable to generate shape data. Gocator® 2512 sensors, in comparison, provide height information at a density which allows users to identify and inspect surface edges and gaps between mated components (e.g., RB glass and frame) with micron accuracy.

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2512 THE SMART 3D LASER PROFILER FOR GLASS AND SPECULAR

www.lmi3D.com/2512

AUTOMATE

DISCOVERS A

NEW SOUL

It’s goodbye Chicago as the North America’s largest automation show is moving to Detroit for 2021. Automate 2019 was keenly anticipated and the show didn’t disappoint. RoboPro Magazine was there and below Neil Martin features some of the news which came out of the exhibition.

The announcement that the move to Motown was being planned came on the first day of Automate 2019 and caused a ripple of excitement amongst the attendees. The next event will now take place at the Cobo Center, on 1720 May, 2021. So make a space in your diaries.

The reason for the move is the size of Automate - it has grown to more than 500 exhibitors, over 20,000 attendees and 1,000 paid conference registrants - and the fact that the show has come of age and does not now need to colocate with other events. Automate has grown and now needs a location to reflect its growing statue within industry.

“To continue our rapid growth, and better meet the needs of our exhibitors who look to Automate to reach new potential customers, we’ve decided that now is the right time to move Automate to its own location – and Detroit is an ideal fit,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), the show’s organizer.

“Detroit is turning into the next major technology hub in the United States. This is an exciting change for us and our exhibitors, allowing Automate to expand in size and technology scope as the automation industry continues its steady growth.”

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DETROIT I’ve never been been to Detroit - it’s one of those US cities I’ve missed for some reason - so it was handy of the Automate organisers to point out that it was named one of Lonely Planet’s top cities to visit in 2018. What’s more, studies from the Brookings Institution have rated Detroit number four on a list of the country’s hubs for advanced technology employment, with nearly 15% of the workforce in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn area working in areas such as research and development and engineering. Though known as a traditional automotive hub, the region is growing in other industries such as aerospace, logistics and advanced mobility.

“We’re very excited that Automate will be moving to Detroit in 2021,” said Mike Cicco, president and CEO of FANUC America, a leading supplier of robotics and automation based in Rochester Hills, Mich. “It’s evident that Michigan is quickly regaining its strength as a manufacturing and technology powerhouse, and we’re proud that our headquarters has been in the Detroit Metro area since 1982.”

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“Detroit is so pleased to be welcoming Automate to our destination next year because it makes sense for a region whose future success, particularly in the automotive sector, is dependent on new technology improvements and automation for the making and delivering of products and services,” said Larry Alexander, president and CEO of the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Our hospitality community will roll out the welcome mat in our vibrant city for the nearly 20,000+ attendees of Automate.”

For its last blast in Chicago (it was an eight year run), Automate went out on a high, with record attendances and lots of praise.

According to the preliminary figures released by the organisers, more than 20,000 walked the show floor at the biennial event – an increase of 25 percent over 2017 – to see the advancements in robotics, vision, motion and advanced automation technology from over 500 exhibitors from around the world.

Toothless Gearbox Takes Home $10,000 Prize in Launch Pad Startup Contest Winner of the event’s $10,000 Launch Pad Startup competition was Innovative Mechatronic Systems Its Archimedes Drive is a toothless gearbox with speed reducer technology which, they said, brings groundbreaking improvements in performance compared to current drive solutions. Founder Thibaud Verschoor and six other finalists had five minutes to present their innovations before the judges chose the winner. One judge, Oliver Mitchell of Autonomy Ventures, wrote that IM Systems “universally stood out for its important contribution...with potential to generate a billion-dollar valuation with its promise of bringing down the cost of adoption and quickening the speed of deployment.”

Automate now moves onto to Detroit, flushed from success at Chicago and hoping that by the time it lands in 2020, it will be able to replicate that success.

Burnstein said the majority of the largest exhibitors have already reserved their spots for 2021 in Detroit, all citing the strong connections they were able to make at this year’s show.

“Automate has proven once again to be an ideal venue for manufacturers to find the latest innovations in automation, from collaborative and mobile robots to artificial intelligence, machine vision and motion control.

From what we’ve heard from exhibitors and attendees alike, the show was a great success, generating thousands of valuable leads as business leaders learned how the various innovations can help their companies thrive in today’s highly competitive global environment. We can’t wait to do it all again in 2021, this time in Detroit!”

Sector companies were happy to add their support for the event.

Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) used the event to launch the MiR1000 and add an AI-based navigation system for its entire fleet (more on that below).

Ed Mullen, MiR’s vice president of sales for the Americas, said: “Automate attracts thousands of companies from across the United States, which makes it an ideal venue for us. The massive amount of highly qualified leads we received at Automate this year compared to when we first launched in North America in 2017 completely validates our decision to exhibit at the show. We’re looking forward to 2021.”

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MOBILE INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS Autonomous mobile robot firm MiR uses exhibitions as a key marketing channel, so it was no surprise that it used Automate to make a big announcement.

And up stepped the MiR1000 which can be used to automatically pick up, transport and deliver pallets and other heavy loads up to 1000 kg (2200 lbs) through dynamic environments.

Like the MiR500, introduced in 2018, the MiR1000 is a collaborative, safe and flexible alternative to potentially

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dangerous and expensive forklifts on the factory floor.

The MiR1000 joins the manufacturer’s family of AMRs for heavy and light transport that optimize logistics throughout the entire production chain, from the warehouse to the delivery of goods.

“Customers have seen that with our other robots and will experience the same efficiencies with the MiR1000 and much heavier loads.”

The MiR1000 has two flexible pallet lifts for the two most commonly used types of pallets: the EU pallet and the 40” x 48” pallet. Like MiR’s other AMRs, the MiR1000 can be programmed via the intuitive user interface, or through the MiRFleet robot fleet management system, which makes it simple to automate new tasks for a company’s entire fleet of robots. The AMRs can also easily integrate different top modules such as pallet lifts, conveyors, a robot arm or other options to support a wide range of applications.

MiR also announced another industry first—artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities across all of its AMRs for improved navigation.

With AI capabilities incorporated into the software and strategically placed cameras that function as an extended set of robot sensors, MiR has enabled its robots for optimized route-planning and driving behaviour.

The MiR100, MiR200 and MiR500 are already installed in more than 45 countries at companies such as Airbus, Flex, Honeywell, Toyota, Visteon, and Hitachi.

According to MiR CEO Thomas Visti, MiR built the MiR1000 in response to strong demand from customers of the smaller robots who also want to transport heavy materials such as those in the aerospace and automotive industries.

“With the MiR1000, we are once again extending the possibilities for automating internal logistics, especially for those who want to transport very large materials without reconfiguring their infrastructure,” Visti said. “Manufacturers today must deal with ever-changing customer demands, which means they need flexible and easily adaptable production facilities. Conventional logistics solutions like forklifts and conveyor belts and even traditional automated guided vehicles (AGVs) haven’t been able to support this type of production.

“With the MIR1000 and our other highly flexible autonomous robots, none of which require rebuilding infrastructure or extensive programming capabilities, we have made it especially easy to optimize the transportation of all types of materials,” he added.

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The cameras, called MiR AI Camera, enable the robots to detect and recognize different moving obstacles and react accordingly. For example, the robots will continue driving as usual if they detect a person but will park if they detect an AGV so the AGV can drive by. The robot can also predict blocked areas or highly trafficked areas in advance and reroute instead of entering the blocked area and then re-routing.

ENERGID Energid used Automate to highlight extensive enhancements to its Actin 5 software development kit (SDK),a robotic software for real-time, adaptive motion control.

Actin‘s advanced adaptive motion control capabilities help robotic system developers quickly and easily design,

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model and control complex robotic systems from proof of concept through deployment/execution. Its new features facilitate the process even further: •

eight new training examples show developers how to load a robot simulation model, execute simple motions, change motion constraint sets, and coordinate multiple manipulators;

•

a Group Motion Manager allows developers to queue up a group of motions and control the execution of the motions using a predefined state machine;

•

expanded support for Universal Robot’s E-Series and CB3 robots.

•

technical demonstration of Automated Bin Picking – This interactive tabletop demo shows how Actin applied to bin picking simplifies the user programming of picking parts while at the same time enabling hundreds of potential pick poses. In addition, it shows how the environment is trained using real-world inputs of collaborative robots which enables collision-free motion planning within the space.

EPSON Epson showcased its line of SCARA and 6-Axis Robots and also introduced three new robotics solutions.

With more than 300 models, Epson’s SCARA robot lineup - the G-Series, LS-Series, RS-Series and T-Series All-in-One - make Epson a world leading SCARA robot manufacturer.

Starting at $7,495, Epson SCARA robots provide payloads up to 20 kg and reaches ranging from 175 to 1,000mm.

Available in a variety of configurations, these robots deliver extraordinary cycle times and extreme precision with repeatability down to 5 microns.

6-Axis Robots “The new features we’ve added make it even easier for robotic system developers to build advanced robot applications,” Energid CEO Neil Tardell said. “The flexibility of the Actin SDK allows customers to easily build advanced motion control capabilities.”

One of the most challenging and time-consuming problems robotic systems developers encounter include coordinating multiple robots to work together; adding a 7th, 8th or 9th degree of freedom to a 6-axis robot such as a rail, gantry or mobile base; integrating vision feedback with real-time robotic control; or moving complex systems through confined spaces. Energid’s two demos showed how these problems can be solved: •

Actin – In real time, the software adapts to the changing robot base position while performing a task. Once the system is modeled in Actin, the robot designer is free to focus on the application happening at the end of the arm. This can be applied in applications such as mobile robots, underwater robots, and robots mounted on additional axes, such as rails;

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Epson’s space-saving 6-Axis robots, including the C4-Series, C8-Series and N-Series, enable a wide range of motion with few mechanical restrictions. With its SlimLine design, Epson 6-Axis robots can reach into confined workspaces from many angles with ultra smooth motion, making these robots some of the most flexible 6-Axis robots available in the market today. Epson will continue its heritage of innovation by introducing a groundbreaking ultra-low cost 6-Axis robot at Automate.

Integrated solutions Epson offers a provides high precision robotic guidance, enabling developers to quickly build applications and reduce overall development time and cost. Force Guide takes automation to the next level by delivering fast, tactile feedback to guide robots for high-precision parts placement. Both solutions have an easy to use point-andclick setup and are fully integrated within the Epson RC+ development environment for easy configuration. Epson will add to its solution portfolio by unveiling a revolutionary integrated parts feeding solution at Automate.

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ACIETA To give job shops and manufacturers a system that is easy to utilize to offer a high-quality FANUC collaborative robot, Acieta has launched the new FastLOAD CR2000 standard machine tool cell. The new cells are designed with all components fully integrated for fast delivery and start-up as well as at a low cost.

To overcome capacity challenges, labor shortages and quality variability, the FastLOAD CR2000 collaborative machine tool cell can help companies maximize efficiency and profitability, increase profits, address labor shortages and improve operator safety.

For high efficiency, the FastLOAD CR2000 can tend two machines simultaneously so an operator can load and unload parts while the robot is working on the other machine. It features a FANUC CR-15iA collaborative six axis robot, an intuitive touchscreen interface with easy in-shop wifi programming, and gripper fingers that allow for parts ranging from 5/8” in. to 5 3⁄4” in. diameter.

KISTLER Kistler, the Swiss measurement technology expert, demonstrated its comprehensive measurement chain for press-fit and joining processes including force sensors, light barriers, maXYmos monitoring units and robotics application.

“Companies want to address their manufacturing problems quickly, and with our FastLOAD CR2000, we can deliver a high-quality system with an aggressive lead-time,” said Mark Sumner, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Acieta. “Utilizing a FANUC collaborative robot in this system provides manufacturers a great way to drive increased productivity in a small footprint, a safe work environment, and at a high return on investment, so succeeding with robotics is easier and faster than ever before. It’s changing the way people think about robotics.”

Kistler offers a range of monitoring and control solutions for press-fit and joining processes, including sensors,

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measuring chains, monitors, evaluation units and joining modules for automated assembly and robotic applications.

In a demo set-up at the booth, a light barrier triggered a measurement: the robotics application with integrated force sensor tested the medical device. Next, the measurement curves were displayed on the maXYmos monitor, which distinguishes between good and bad assessment results, thus helping manufacturers eliminate faulty products.

double-seal construction on all axes and waterproof electrical connections, offering an IP67 classification for the wrist and IP65 for the remaining axes.

Also, as part of the Innovation Showcase Presentations, Frank Kirgis, Head of Kistler’s Industrial Process Control Division, gave a speech on “Smart applications with sensors and monitoring solutions: making the difference in IIoT & Robotics” at the “Win the Future” theatre.

KAWASAKI Kawasaki has added new high-speed, low-payload robots to its lineup.

It said that in response to the rising demand for fast, flexible and compact industrial robots in food and other industries, Kawasaki developed two 6-axis vertically articulated robots with a maximum payload capacity of 7 kg and different reach. The RS007N and RS007L models are the latest additions to the company’s general-purpose R series line of small-to-medium payload (3-80 kg) robots ideal for a wide range of applications including packing, material handling and machine tending.

The Kawasaki RS007N and RS007L robots continue to offer the operational advantages of the R series robots while incorporating a newly redesigned arm structure and main-unit weight reductions. By redesigning the arm structure and adjusting the acceleration rates in accordance with load weights and robot positioning, the RS007N and RS007L models offer consistently optimized performance by significantly reducing cycle times. These enhancements also result in the fastest operating speeds in these robots’ class (12,100 mm/s) along with increased working ranges.

The RS007N robot features a 730 mm reach and the RS007L a 930 mm reach for greater flexibility in production facility layouts. The small installation footprint and greater speed and reach of these robots provide automation flexibility for high mix, low volume production, and can minimize changeover times. Both models feature a

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Kawasaki’s newest F60 robot controller comes standard with both models. This state-of-the-art controller helps manufacturers digitally connect their machines and extract value from the Internet of Things (IoT), and features enhanced data collection and transfer capabilities to support overall equipment efficiency (OEE) calculations and smart manufacturing. The Bluetooth enabled controller allows for the collection and analysis of both robot and production data and provides the ability to link to the cloud, other robots or machines, tablets, vision cameras and various fieldbuses.

With a compact design, industry leading speed and reach, and an enhanced communication controller, the RS007N and RS007L robots meet the demand for smart and flexible manufacturing, enabling efficient small batch production and minimizing changeover times.

DUARO With a small footprint and low price tag, the easy to program and deploy “duAro” offers robot automation possibilities to companies of all sizes.

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It’s a common misconception that integrating robots means spending a lot to completely overhaul production lines and start from scratch. In 2016, Kawasaki introduced the highly innovative human-friendly industrial SCARA robot named duAro whose mobile design and safety functionality make it ideal for companies of any size. Integrating the duAro into a manufacturing process is a relatively simple change that can benefit the bottom line and relieve employees from performing menial tasks.

The duAro is the first dual-armed horizontal articulated robot to operate on a single axis. This configuration enables the robot to perform coordinated movements, much like a human, making it perfect for applications such as small-part inspection, assembly, material handling, material removal and machine tending. As the robot is designed to fit into a single-person space, it can easily be deployed without modifications to any assembly or manufacturing line. The mobile base on which the dual-arms are placed also accommodates the controller, allowing the user to move the unit to any location desired.

The duAro’s design also reflects the need to keep its human co-workers safe. Low-power motors, a soft body, speed and work zone monitoring, and a deceleration function allows the duAro to safely collaborate with humans in work operations. In the unlikely event of a collision, the collision detection function instantaneously stops the robot’s movement. The duAro robot is not only safe but it’s also smart. The direct teach function allows for the user to teach the robot tasks by hand guiding its arms. In addition, the robot can be programmed through a tablet terminal by entering numerical values indicating the direction and distance of each movement. This user-friendly robot with a small installation footprint and mobile base is also perfect for high mix, low volume production.

Two Kawasaki dual-arm duAro robots were installed at a Tier 1 auto parts supplier to work together in a machine tending application. With the implementation of these two robots the supplier was able to double their throughput and eliminate errors. This turnkey solution took about 9 weeks to implement from initial design to commissioning, and an additional week was used to train employees on how to operate the system. The design, build and commissioning of a single unit to a turnkey system can range anywhere from a week to 2-3 months. With a base price of $33,000, the duAro is a safe, affordable, easy to operate, collaborative robot that can meet the demands for flexible manufacturing.

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KOLLMORGEN Kollmorgen brought their motion-centric automation solutions to the show for the first time. Visitors saw a variety of product exhibits and exciting live demos, including Kollmorgen’s servo boxing robots. Demos and other exhibits have been designed to show how Kollmorgen’s next-generation technology helps OEMs increase efficiency, uptime, throughput and machine life.

Demos will included.

AKD2G/AKM2G System Demo: Kollmorgen’s AKD2G and AKM2G product lines offer OEMs the best power density on the market, and enough flexibility to achieve “just right” fit and performance to match the machine and application for maximum efficiency.

The dual-axis AKD2G Servo Drive substantially reduces mains wiring, fuses, and filtering to save significant panel space and cost. Industry 4.0/IoT ready, the AKD2G shares data with the Cloud and upstream controls, as well as communicating status, diagnostics, and predictive maintenance in real time. Safety is seamlessly built into the drive with Kollmorgen Safe Motion.

The AKM2G Servo Motor delivers the best power and torque density on the market, offering OEMs a way to increase performance and speed while cutting power consumption and costs. Highly configurable, with six frame sizes with up to five stack lengths, and a variety of selectable options (such as feedback, mounting, and performance capabilities), the AKM2G can easily be dropped into existing designs.

Robotic Gearmotor Demo: Kollmorgen’s frameless motor solutions integrate seamlessly with strain wave gears, feedback devices, and servo drives to form a lightweight and compact robotic joint solution. Kollmorgen’s standard

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and custom frameless motor solutions enable smaller, lighter, and faster robots.

•

STF Stepper Drives that support a range of industrial Ethernet and Fieldbus network protocols including EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, CANopen, Modbus, Ethernet and RS-485, as well as a proprietary Serial Command Language (SCL) for efficient network communications over Ethernet (UDP or TCP) and RS-485. Using STF Stepper Drives, system designers and machine builders have the flexibility to control step motors using the network protocol of their choice;

•

SV200 Digital Servo Drives that operate on 24, 48 or higher DC supply voltages for space-constrained and multi-axis motion control applications.

Applied Motion Products specializes in high-precision, cost-effective motion control products including stepper and servo motors, drives, controllers, gearheads, and power supplies.

Frameless Motor Demo: TBMTM frameless motors into any application requiring a compact, lightweight, and torquedense solution.

Servo Boxing Robots: A game of “servo boxing” that highlights a complete Kollmorgen machine automation solution. Industry 4.0/IoT/Cloud capabilities are demonstrated using remote monitoring and predictive maintenance examples.

AGVs and Mobile Robots: Showed attendees how they could learn about Kollmorgen’s flexible, scalable vehicle control solutions for material handling for smart factories and warehouses with AGVs and mobile robots.

APPLIED MOTION PRODUCTS Applied Motion Products demonstrated a selection of new integrated motors and drives for both servo and stepper motors at the Automate Show.

The company serves a diverse industrial and OEM customer base with both standard and RB customized products.

Products on display included: •

MDX Integrated Servo Motors that combine high torque density, low inertia servo motors with on-board drives and controllers to create all-in-one integrated motor solutions that save on space, wiring, and cost over conventional servo systems with separate motor and drive components;

•

StepSERVO Integrated Motors that provide costeffective and high-torque motion control for high throughput applications such as packaging and labeling, automated test and measurement, and automated assembly;

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A PRECARIOUS RELATIONSHIP:

WHY THE FUTURE OF ROBOTICS RELIES ON A SECURE IOT ECOSYSTEM Building a robot is like a game of technical dominos

By Eric Jensen, Head of IoT Product Management at Canonical – the company behind Ubuntu Building a robot is like a game of technical dominos, with individual components combining to create something new and exciting.

One chink in the chain, however, and the big picture can be spoilt. This domino analogy also relates to the robotics industry as a whole. Both businesses and consumers are getting to grips with the potential of machines – in healthcare, retail and agriculture – meaning one issue could have a ripple effect and stunt uptake in robotics before it ever gets going. One of the biggest weaknesses remains the Internet of Things (IoT), which allows smart machines to communicate and process data at the edge. Without a secure IoT, robotics will always be vulnerable, and its potential never fully realised.

The IoT is now a mainstream concept, but it remains

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a taboo where security is concerned. That’s because as the market for connected devices grows, so too do the points of vulnerability; access points multiply; and security concerns skyrocket in turn. As a result, trust in IoT is precarious. Gemalto found that ninety per cent of consumers now lack confidence in connected devices.

And these concerns are more than valid, as nearly half of companies are unable to detect when an IoT breach occurs, and only 15 per cent of budgets are earmarked for IoT security specifically.

Still, the future of robotics rests firmly on the shoulders of IoT. Robots act as one part of intelligent ecosystems: they depend on the IoT to link various sensors and smart metres, pass data to and from third parties, and increasingly allow machines to ‘understand’ the world. The self-driving car, for example, is a robot orchestrated by various smaller devices and smart sensors. In fact, robots are being created to tackle every conceivable problem. Take the Googlefunded RangerBot – an underwater machine designed to track down one species of starfish responsible for coral reef destruction, or Small Robot Company, a start-up tackling farming deficiencies with bots that autonomously feed, seed, and weed arable crops.

Rising levels of sophistication within robotics, however, goes hand-in-hand with more targeted and damaging attacks. Telesurgery uses robotics to help surgeons perform

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procedures remotely – a malware bug in this scenario could mean the downing of tools, threatening the patient’s life. Researchers at Brown University proved how easy it is to hack robots – the industry will simply not be sustainable without the backing of a secure, connected IoT network.

Robot manufacturers, therefore, must build with a ‘securityby-design’ mindset. This begins by selecting a robust operating system from the outset – secure now, but also ready for future market demands. Hackers are constantly evolving their activities and businesses must be flexible in their approach to security, shedding the old hardwarecentric view of IoT security. Software can no longer end when a device is shipped. It must align to the lifespan of a robot and be able to update whenever there is a potential flaw. The world of mobile took many years to get to grips with this – robotics and IoT developers should learn from their mistakes.

One way developers can safely build and secure software is through snaps – containerised software packages, an open platform for building and publishing applications to an audience of millions. If a security vulnerability is discovered in the libraries used by an application, the app publisher is notified so the app can be rebuilt quickly with the supplied fix and pushed out. This allows for developers to stay focused on innovation while ensuring the longevity of robotics hardware.

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It remains unclear where the onus lies for IoT security, with nobody holding anyone else to account. Market constraints often prevent device makers from putting more budget than what is absolutely necessary into design security, when there is so much pressure to innovate ahead of competitors. But it’s no secret that we need to do better when it comes to regulation. The IoT Code of Practice in the UK introduced last year was a good start; however, it’s still not compulsory for companies to adhere to it. Similarly, the Cybersecurity Act in the EU remains leaves compliance largely voluntary. It may be that binding government legislation, where there are serious financial consequences for negligence, is the only remedy. This would make it impossible for companies to turn a blind eye to security.

When people think about robotics, innovation will always trump the more mundane aspects of software security and maintenance. However, if the industry is to succeed and make a real impact on society, both manufacturers and technology suppliers must not ignore the basics. Every industry goes through a process of maturity when it first moves from theory to practice. Robotics is still in its infancy, meaning time is still on the side of those championing a more robust security framework. Without it, robotics and the IoT risks tearing down the foundations that have only just been built. RB

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ROBOPRO BUSI N ESS

UR/MIR PARENT ANNOUNCES FIRST QUARTER FIGURES Teradyne, parent company to Universal Robots and Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), has announced its first quarter earnings for the three months to 31 March 2019.

The figures were ahead of estimates with quarter one revenues rising 1% to $494m; the market was looking for $476m. Q1 adjusted EPS rose 20% to $0.54, exceeding estimates of $0.44.

execution against its longer-term opportunity set, whilst navigating short-term pockets of weakness in some of its more cyclical end-markets. We continue to like Teradyne for its dominant position in collaborative robots as well as other industries with secular growth opportunities. Whilst shares are trading above historical averages on 20.3x December 2019 consensus earnings, we believe estimates could see upgrades as we go through the year.”

The Industrial Automation division revenue increased 35% in Q1, driven by a 16% increase in Universal Robots, as well as reflecting the acquisition of MiR in the prior year.

The outlook for the full year remains essentially unchanged, as pockets of strength such as 5G test are offset by softness in areas such as automotive test.

Guidance for the second quarter of 2019 is for revenue of $520m to $550m, with adjusted EPS of between $0.56 and $0.65 per diluted share, compared to consensus estimates of $0.58.

UK investment house Killik & Co said in its daily note: “This is a solid start to the year from Teradyne, highlighting steady

CIMCORP ENTERS RUSSIAN DISTRIBUTION MARKET Logistics automation specialist Cimcorp has partnered with Russian technology integrator FL Group to offer its robotic solutions to customers in Russia.

Cimcorp told RoboPro Magazine that it was entering the Russian distribution market in response to growing demand for increased speed in fresh produce logistics.

It is represented by FL Group, an industrial automation integrator based in St Petersburg.

Kai Tuomisaari, Cimcorp’s Vice President of Sales, said: “Grocery retail distribution in Russia is ripe for automation.

Our robotic handling solutions enable retailers to maximise product freshness, which is key to optimising sales and enhancing the customer experience.”

Tatiana Borisova, CEO of FL Group, added: “Russian retailers need to respond dynamically to market demands to ensure operational cost efficiency and low pricing, while at the same time providing their customers with high-quality products and services. The quality issue is always critical for fruit and vegetables, which is why I believe that Cimcorp’s automation for fresh produce distribution has huge potential in Russia.”

every SKU, ultra-fast handling and total picking accuracy.

“This means shorter lead-times and improved freshness for perishable products,” explained Tuomisaari. “Maximised shelf life can secure vital competitive advantage for our clients in the fresh produce, bakery and dairy sectors.”

Cimcorp’s automation combines buffer storage and order picking in one efficient, flexible and scalable operation.

Products are handled gently in plastic crates, which are designed with excellent ventilation and are stacked directly on the floor. By avoiding the need for racking, the system ensures maximum space utilisation and also allows the entire working area to be cleared, full automatically, for hygienic cleaning. A standard robotic module – 30m long, 12m wide and 6m tall – is easy to install in existing warehouses, even in city locations. Computer control of all material flows ensures full tracking and traceability.

Using robots that operate from overhead gantries, Cimcorp’s modular solutions provide instant access to

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ROBOT COMPANY BLUE WORKFORCE GOES UNDER Danish based Blue Workforce, which was founded in 2012, has gone bankrupt.

The company developed the RAGNAR Robot for use mainly in food packing and employed around 30 people from its Danish HQ, and three overseas subsidiaries.

Over the last two years it had received funds from investors of around £3.5m, but it is being reported that the company ran out of cash and that a further funding round was unsuccessful.

Founder and CEO Preben Hjørnet told Finance: “It really

hurts. The funding round was intended to secure new working capital, but there was no support in the owner’s circle. Since we had no money for wages, we had to go bankrupt. We had a rescue plan, but just didn’t come to a goal. Now I hope that the company will succeed in a new construction.”

The last published accounts showed the company made a loss after tax of nearly £1m.

Those handling the bankruptcy are hoping to sell the company as a going concern and keep the brand alive.

BÖWE SYSTEC TAKES MAJORITY STAKE IN RED LEDGE Böwe Systec, one of the world’s leading suppliers of smart automation solutions, has taken a majority stake in UK software engineering and automation supply chain specialist Red Ledge, which has joined the Böwe Systec Group.

Böwe Systec is part of the Possehl Group, which in its 2017 financial year generated a turnover of around 3.8 billion euros and employed some 12,500 people.

Founded in 1996, software company Red Ledge specialises in Auto-ID solutions. Its core expertise includes competitive software platforms such as warehouse management systems (WMS), warehouse control systems (WCS) and pharmaceutical serialisation systems. The company’s barcode, RFID, voice and sensor technologies are used worldwide in post and parcel sorting centres, warehouses and production facilities.

System (WMS) and Warehouse Control System (WCS) mean that we can offer our sorting customers substantial added value” added Böwe Systec managing director Dirk Van Vinckenroye.

Alan Wilcockson and Andy O‘Donnell are Red Ledge’s joint managing directors.

“We are a leading supplier of Auto-ID solutions and our systems allow us to control all aspects of intralogistics highly efficiently”, explained Alan Wilcockson. Andy O’Donnell added: “At Red Ledge we are involved in strongly growing and global markets. Working with Böwe Systec we will in future be able to undertake additional and larger projects in parcel and intralogistics markets. We see the merger as a win-win for both companies and we look forward to working together.”

“As a ‘one-stop-shop’ we want to be the first port of call for all our customers’ intralogistics requirements,” said Böwe Systec managing director Joachim Koschier. “They should be able to source everything from us that they need to optimise their parcel sorting centre and their internal processes. From goods receiving to goods out – everything from one supplier. The acquisition of Red Ledge was therefore a logical step and is a cornerstone of our corporate strategy.”

“Our recipe for success is that we listen to what our customers need. With Red Ledge by our side not only can we supply the hardware, which is of course important and essential, but also the software that intelligently knits everything together. Red Ledge’s Warehouse Management

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NEW ROBOTICS: SHIFTING BUSINESS MODELS A new report from IDTechEx (Cambridge, UK) entitled New Robotics: Shifting Business Models, analyses the changing trends in the robotics industry as new and emerging firms challenge the norm.

In an introduction to the report, it said: “Machine makers in many established markets sell their machines directly or through dealer networks. At times, they create additional revenue streams by offering technical after-sales support.

They often hope that the installed base of their machines together with limited incompatibility with competitors’ products provides some lock-in mechanism. They also seek to build-in some technology obsolescence into their product cycles.

“Some also provide finance, directly or jointly with a finance entity, to help potential customers overcome the barrier of the upfront cost. Many traditional robot suppliers fit the description above. Integrators often install a robotic or automated solution and provide after-sale technical support. They make it difficult to integrate competitors’ robots with their solutions and offer regular hardware and software updates.

“New and emerging robotic firms however do not easily fit this bill. They are in fact challenging the established norms. This is sometimes through will and sometimes through necessity. The trend towards alternative models is evident across all sectors that new robotics seeks to impact.

This includes retail, agriculture, logistics, delivery, security, cleaning, transport, and so on.”

As for the key sectors, the report summarised: AGRICULTURE Autonomous robots can provide automated precision weeding. Robotic intelligent implements can provide precision spraying or weeding too. The upfront machine or fleet costs are often high today. The technology risk for end users are also high. Users are often afraid that expert operators and repair persons will be needed. They worry that the technology is not tried and tested, especially in an agricultural environment. They fear that the technology is likely to rapidly evolve, exposing them to serious obsolescence risks. Crucially, they require seasonal services and are accustomed to paying wages and not making significant capital investments into machines with low utilization rates.

To address these challenges many companies are positioning as a RaaS- robotic as a service. They essentially become weeding service providers. They operate or monitor their own machines. They charge the customer per acre, a metric with which they are likely familiar. They

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absorb the technology risk. Crucially, they give their robots extensive field practice and will have the chance to gather data and feedback. This is important because the design of these products and services is still in a state of flux with many further iterations anticipated.

This positioning changes the nature of their business.

Companies will require additional working capital and staff to absorb the service costs and to offer a sufficiently scaled service network. They cannot simply build to order to balance their cashflows. This is where partnerships will become important. This is also where early capital investments in case of start-ups becomes a necessity as most will operate heavily in the red in the early years of their operations.

With time and technology maturity the model may revert back to a traditional arrangement, or will it? This is an ongoing debate because traditional heavy agricultural machine makers will also need to adapt their models.

This is inevitable because as vehicles become more autonomous, in navigation and task, the machine becomes the services, blurring the boundary between equipment sales and service provision. The whole value chains will need to adjust and even the dealers will need to find their sweet spots evolving their technical support into full blown remote robot operations?

LAST MILE DELIVERY Many small robots are appearing worldwide to solve the productivity problem present at the last stage of the delivery process: the last mile. These small slow robots autonomously deliver small payloads to their final destinations. At the level of individual machines, there are highly unproductive. However, at the level of a large fleet, without a driver overhead per unit, they can become productive and commercially viable.

Here two business models have emerged. Some follow the traditional model of trying to sell their robots. Others are positioning as delivery firms staffed mainly by autonomous robots. This latter model is adopted for many good reasons. It is envisioned that the hardware will in the future become modular, standardized, and highly commoditized.

Essentially the same fate as consumer drones awaits the hardware platform. Competing in such a business would not be easy for start-ups especially those based in California and similar start-up hubs.

Crucially also the robot companies require practice data.

This is because they will need to improve their delivery and navigation algorithms so that one day they can operate large fleets in complex environments with high speed units.

The data loop would be cut if they just sold a machine and

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walked out. The data acquisition is a fundamental part of product improvement without which the company would likely stall.

It will also open up the door to offering high value-added analytics services.

The technology is still immature. As such, it will require close monitoring and likely regular manual interventions to fix issues. As such, most players will, as a minimum, be forced to add a strong 24/7 service element to their business.

LOGISTICS Robotic firms are emerging to enable autonomous robotic picking. These robots combine autonomous mobility with autonomous picking skills. Here too companies are frequently positioning themselves as a service provider, charging a monthly subscription fee or a $ per pick rate.

In this case too robotic companies require the data. Their picking algorithms are based on deep learning and as such without training data their product roadmap will likely stall.

This would be very dangerous to their business prospects because today’s generation of products only manage to slowly pick regularly-shaped known objects in simple environments. The future however is fast picking of novel randomly-shaped items in complex environments. To traverse this competency gap, data will be indispensable.

The users too will require ongoing support. They too will prefer not to absorb the technology risk especially since the technology- both hardware and software- are rapidly evolving. As such, a service model can prove win-win SECURITY Autonomous mobile robots are developed to perform various security related tasks. These robots are being designed for indoor, outdoor and even rugged terrain operation. They are essentially sensors-on-a-wheel.

Some versions can have more than 50-onboard sensors, generating nearly 100 tera bytes of data per year per machine. These robots can be deployed wherever some type of security and monitoring is required.

and analyse specific situations, e.g., from car number plate recognition to detection of dangerous gas leakages in an industrial site. Customers too will take this arrangement because it is closer to an end solution and makes it easier for them to test the technology and the new ways of working that it might enable.

RETAIL Autonomous robots are also finding their way into retail stores, seeking to automate tedious tasks. In particular, they are being offered essentially as automated data acquisition tools, capturing data about items on the shelves with higher speed and accuracy than humans.

Here firms are positioning as full solution providers. This has many advantages. This future-proofs their business against hardware commoditization. They can accumulate hard-to-obtain and hard-to-copy knowhow and data which can then underpin their value-added data analytics services.

Their customers too will be interested in a final solution and not another alien technology looking for a problem to solve.

At the end of the day, they are interested only in an impact on the bottom line, be it higher stock availability, better stock positioning on shelves, or leaner inventories. As such, data-centric service-oriented models can be winwin propositions.

This shift towards non-traditional business models permeates every sector. It is happening even with cars where the rise of mobility is fuelling serious debates about the future of mobility and the role of autonomous taxi fleets and shared facilities. In general, even if the business models are not radically redrawn the profit pool within the value chain will be re-balanced. This will change the winners and losers and will demand that all participates begin looking ahead and planning now.

Here too firms are not always adopting an outright equipment sales model. It is common to seek a subscription model for giving customers access to the machine, the interface, the data plan, the 24/7 support, etc.

Here too such arrangements can be win-win. The suppliers will retain that crucial data loop in their business models, enabling them to improve their products, for example, by offering specialized algorithms able to detect, recognize,

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H-FARM OPENS AN INNOVATION HUB IN SPAIN H-FARM, an Italian innovation platform, has opened an innovation hub in Spain.

H-FARM’s goal in Spain is to become a reference point for companies that want to raise their competitiveness in the marketplace and innovate their business models through increased attention to digitalization and emerging technologies. A dedicated team will accompany the companies in each stage of their growth path, from the definition of the strategy to the design of new services, from the development of applications and technology solutions.

The projects will have a focus on Innovation Culture – the growth of human capital – and Open Innovation, in order to create processes of collaboration between Corporates and Startups as an answer to the challenges and objectives of each company.

It will support the evolution of business models for Spanish companies through Open Innovation and Corporate Innovation.

The hub will be managed by Aleix Valls, former CEO of Mobile World Capital Foundation. In 2018, an increasing number of foreign companies, both large and mediumsized, chose H-FARM as a strategic partner to create new competitive business models, increasing foreign revenue by 13%.

H-FARM told RoboPro Magazine that to foster international growth, it has chosen Spain, a country that has had sustained economic growth since 2014, exceeding +3% per year, thus returning to pre-crisis levels and positioning itself well above the average of the Eurozone. This trend is also confirmed for 2019, with expected growth of over +2%.

It added that in recent years, Barcelona has become one of the most important centres for technology and innovation in Europe, thanks to an entrepreneurial ecosystem that continues to attract investments, a wide pool of talent and a high quality of life. Rankings indicate that the Catalan city is the third most -preferred by European entrepreneurs in which to create start-ups and fourth in the ranking of the ten technological hubs in the EU by number of startups.

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Aleix Valls (above left), CEO of H-FARM BCN, said: “We are really proud to become part of H-Farm family. With this joint venture effort we assure H-Farm position as a leading digital innovation platform into Spanish market”.

Timothy O’Connell (above right), Head of Global Business Development, commented regarding the opening of the new company, which is 51% owned by H-FARM: “We are very happy to have the opportunity to open a hub in Barcelona: we aim to create a strong synergy between our experience of over 14 years as an innovation platform and that of Aleix as a key player in promoting digital transformation in the Spanish economic and RB business system.”

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