Machine vision industry consolidation - what's next?

Now that the recession is over and profits are rising fast, it seems that many companies are considering how to expand their markets and solidify both geographical and technological positions. The acquisition of LMI Technologies by Augusta Technologie, parent of Allied Vision Technologies, is just the most recent example of course.

Augusta also recently acquired P+S Technik (digital film expertise) and VDS Vosskühler (infrared specialist), and in 2009 acquired Prosilica (GigE cameras).

Teledyne has been reconfiguring the machine vision world with its recent acquisitions of DALSA (cameras, boards, software) and Nova Sensors (infrared), and the partial acquisition of Optech (airborne and space imaging).

And, in this year alone, Pro-Lite acquired light measurement supplier SphereOptics. Camera systems supplier NET New Electronic Technology acquired iv-tec, which develops algorithms and real-time image-processing software. And Adept acquired food-packaging equipment supplier InMoTx after having acquired service robot maker Mobility in 2010.

These are only the most recent and obvious acquisitions. Numerous OEMs and peripheral software and hardware makers have also merged or been acquired. It's a trend long predicted in the machine vision world. What hardware and software products will be in demand by those seeking to expand? What's next in the drive to create full-product-line vendors to serve vision system integrators and end-users?

Remotely controlled equipment in action at Fukushima

This video from IDG News Service highlights some of the roles played by robotic equipment in the analysis and recovery from the disasters at the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan.



The plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) deployed three camera-equipped, remote-controlled excavators donated by Shimizu and Kajima to clear radioactive debris around the unit 3 reactor. Robots sent to Japan by Qinetiq North America are still being evaluated before deployment to the site.

In addition, Tepco launched a Honeywell T-Hawk micro air vehicle to survey the plant from above, according to a report on CNET.

Having fun with Kinect and machine vision

In the course of researching our Vision for Service Robots market report, it became obvious that low-end vision systems would be a great boon to robot developers of all sorts. And indeed, researchers are taking advantage of low-cost consumer sensors to design increasingly capable and inexpensive robots.

The Microsoft Kinect, designed for the Xbox 360 game system, has set new records for consumer sales and is generating considerable excitement among robot hobbyist and researchers. The Kinect sells for about $150 and its embedded time-of-flight camera and infrared sensors can be used as a vision system for some service robots. For some interesting applications of Kinect in service robots, IEEE Spectrum has a good blog: Top 10 Robotic Kinect Hacks.



But hobbyists and service robot makers aren’t the only one taking advantage of Kinect. MVTec Software has just tested Kinect in 3-D applications for industrial tasks such as bin picking, packaging, and palletizing, as well as for research and development.

And Eye Vision Technology has used the Kinect sensor with its EyeScan 3D system for robotic applications such as depalletization and sorting components on the assembly line.

Robots search and assess Japanese disaster sites

Increasingly, vision-guided service robots are being deployed for rescue and assessment tasks following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. A recent blog on IEEE Spectrum covers the deployment of KOHGA3 by a team from Kyoto University.

The team used the remote-controlled ground robot to enter a gymnasium in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, in the northeastern portion of Japan's Honshu island, and assess damages. They tried to inspect other damaged buildings in the region with limited success.

The robotics team is led by Professor Fumitoshi Matsuno. KOHGA3 has four sets of tracks that allow it to traverse rubble, climb steps, and go over inclines up to 45 degrees. The robot carries three CCD cameras, a thermal imaging camera, laser scanner, LED light, attitude sensor, and a gas sensor. Its 4-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm is nearly 1 meter long and equipped with CCD camera, carbon-dioxide sensor, thermal sensor, and LED light.



In addition, there are several early reports on robot forays or plans, and numerous teams from various robot organizations are making themselves available to help. For example, you can follow the efforts in Japan of Dr. Robin Murphy, who directs the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) at Texas A&M University, on her blog.

Automate 2011 shows synergy of shows

I don’t know whether Automate 2011 (held at McCormick Place in Chicago, March 21-24) was a success for every exhibitor and attendee, but it had all the necessary elements. Unofficial numbers for the show were 170 exhibitors and over 7500 attendees.

The floor traffic, which waxed and waned during the four days of the show, seemed to consist of many system integrators, tool manufacturers, and warehouse system providers—ideal traffic for the show and attributable to the very large, co-located ProMat show on materials handling. Indeed, walking around ProMat was a bit like walking through a display of machine vision in action.

Having recently completed a market report on the use of vision in service robots in, among other applications, warehousing, it was great to see the robots at Kiva Systems gliding eerily around the floor, using embedded smart camera technology to read Data Matrix codes on the floor and to position themselves below shelves that they then picked up and moved to a human who would pick out desired parts.

In additional good news for the machine vision industry, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) presented the preliminary results of its annual statistics for industrial robots, including vision-guided robots. In 2010, with more than 115,000 industrial robots shipped, the number of units sold worldwide almost doubled from 2009, the lowest year since the early 1990s.

Here are some slides from the IFR presentation, which show trends from 2001 to 2011, and the strength of markets in Asia, especially in Korea. An article on the subject explores the trends in different regions and industries (click on images to enlarge).

Will earthquake impact machine vision component supply?

News about the supply chain of vision and electronic components coming from Japan has so far been tentative and sporadic. The ongoing effects of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant failures have dominated the news but indications of specific global economic consequences are emerging.

A New York Times article today investigates some of the impacts, noting that a Texas Instruments plant north of Tokyo that make A/D chips and accounts for 10% of TI's global output was damaged and won't resume full production until September. Toshiba has closed some of its production lines, potentially affecting the availability of NAND flash chips.

The port of Sendai-Shiogama is heavily damaged. It is the 13th largest Japanese port in container shipments and of particular importance to Sony, Canon, and Pioneer. FedEx shut service to much of eastern Japan, including Tokyo, following the earthquake but now reports resumption with some service delays.

Please let me know if you have any related information - cholton@pennwell.com.

Hummingbird with video camera

A new surveillance device may be arriving at your bird feeder soon. Yesterday, AeroVironment (Monrovia, CA), announced that it had got its Nano Hummingbird to precisely hover and fly forward, fast. Weighing two thirds of an ounce, including batteries and video cameras, the prototype was built as part of the DARPA Nano Air Vehicle program.

The final concept demonstrator is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, flying forward and backward, as well as rotating clockwise and counter-clockwise, under remote control. During the demonstration the Nano Hummingbird flew in and out of a building through a normal-size doorway.



The hand-made prototype aircraft has a wingspan of 16 cm (6.5 inches) and can fitted with a removable body fairing, which is shaped to have the appearance of a hummingbird. The company, which makes a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles used by the military, says the Nano is larger and heavier than an average hummingbird, but is smaller and lighter than the largest hummingbird currently found in nature.

Vision Systems Design is publishing a market report on vision for such UAVs and other service robots. For more information, click here.