Robots have been used for decades in industrial manufacturing applications to perform tasks, such as welding, part picking, metalworking and more. But without vision systems to guide robot movements and actions, these applications were limited to performing the same or very similar operations over and over on precisely located parts.
According to Dan Hebert, PE and a Control Design technical editor, advantages from vision systems enable more widespread use of robots by guiding their actions to closely fit ever-changing and more-demanding production requirements.
With that, Hebert offers these top ten benefits of using vision systems to guide robots:
1. Automates manual steps and processes
2. One camera can replace multiple sensors
3. Speeds production and increases throughput
4. Greatly reduces programming effort to guide robot
5. Increases flexibility of the robot
6. Recipe-driven production reduces changeover times
7. Allows for less precise positioning of parts
8. Less expensive and more precise robots can be used
9. Eliminates expensive fixtures
10. Allows a robot to perform multiple tasks
To learn more about how robots paired with machine vision can create automated and efficient motion, read the full article from Hebert: "Add vision to robots — see the difference."
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