Position Determined

Bachelor's Thesis on Position Determination of Parts

Position (or pose) determination plays a crucial part in visual quality control since only the compensation of positional errors enables further processing steps in inspection systems.

A student of Computer Science, Media and Communications at Hochschule Karlsruhe (University of Applied Sciences) recently wrote his bachelors's thesis at SAC. He researched the 2D position determination of parts in machine vision and implemented a new approach.

Based on state-of-the-art technology in the field of image registration, different procedures for position determination were compared. The study also factored in the requirements for quality control in machine vision: On the one hand, the procedure must be geared to a high production rate; on the other hand, it must be especially robust and resistant to interferences. Furthermore, it should be easy to apply.

The student searched for a clever solution to determine the positional and rotational change between two camera images quickly and exactly. In the end, a “spectral procedure” was chosen. It appeared to be best suited for the inspection task since it was especially quick compared to other procedures and is not based on an object model or on the complete object contour. The procedure can be used in connection with both transmitted light and reflected light and is extremely resistant to interferences.

The procedure was optimized, adjusted to the inspection task, and finally tested for exactness, robustness, and runtime. The overall results were very promising and motivated us to follow up on the subject beyond the bachelor's thesis.

Our undergraduate student was also very content: “Beside pick-and-place tasks, the procedure is also well suited for position tracking and motion compensation applications, even though some aspects still need optimization.”

The cooperation was a great success for both sides. “The counseling by the supervisors was very competent. I was allowed to participate in the weekly meetings of the development department right from the beginning, so I was fully integrated immediately. I learned a lot about current technologies and procedures and gained insights into the industry,” says the student.

We would like to congratulate him warmly on successfully gaining his bachelor's degree and wish him all the best for his graduate studies.

We're especially delighted that he has decided to stay with the company as a working student. He has already started work on his current project, which is to redesign the spectral procedure in such a way that it can be used in our products and solutions for position determination.

We say thank you and look forward to further fruitful and inspiring cooperation.