Vision guided robotics: 'Seeing' is believing

Vision and robotics first converged when manufacturers discovered that many robot applications lacked the flexibility to easily accommodate smaller batches and frequent changeovers required for mixed-model processing. Unlike blind robots, vision-guided robots don't depend on costly precision fixtures to hold parts, require additional labor to load and orient parts or need upstream actuators, sorters and feeders to separate parts for processing. Consequently, vision guided robotics (VGR) allows manufacturers to more easily process various part types without tooling changeovers. VGR provides the added benefit of automatic collision avoidance for safer work cells.