SENSORS AND CAMERAS FOR MACHINE VISION.

The use of sensors operating in the visible and near-infrared segments of the spectrum has significantly increased due to machine vision for process control and on-line inspection which now represents one of the major growth markets for this class of sensor. The successful use of these noncontact pickup devices depends greatly upon knowledgeable selection of the most suitable sensor for the task at hand. Successful machine vision systems result from optimum selection of lighting, optics, sensors, image processors, and recognition algorithms. These systems must consider operator interface, process interface, and system packaging. While each of these segments must be optimized, each has sufficient depth for dedicated technical papers. This article focuses on trends and options in sensors and cameras principally for machine vision applications.