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<strong>MELVILLE, N.Y., JULY 16, 2015</strong> – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced the entry into the growing machine vision market in the U.S., with the launch of 3-D Machine Vision Systems, models RV300, RV500 and RV1100. Designed for use with industrial robots, these systems are capable of high-speed, high-accuracy three-dimensional recognition of objects. The systems in combination with a robotic arm can help increase production efficiencies in factories by facilitating the automatic high-speed supply of parts to production lines.</p>
<p>Enabling a robotic arm to accurately and successively recognize and pickup individual items from a randomly assembled pile of parts requires a system capable of the three-dimensional recognition of the shapes of the parts. All three models of Canon’s Machine Vision system feature a 3-D machine vision head, which encompasses the system sensor and 3-D machine vision recognition software for recognition processing. The highest level of performance in speed and accuracy for three-dimensional object recognition capabilities of the Canon’s Machine Vision system were made possible by applying innovative image-recognition and information-processing technologies cultivated through Canon’s research and development of cameras and business machines.</p>
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<p>Canon’s 3-D Machine Vision systems can accurately recognize a diverse range of objects, including parts with curved features, parts with few distinguishing characteristics and intricately structured parts. The RV300, RV500, RV1100 enable the 3-D recognition of randomly piled parts as small as approximately 10 mm<sup>2</sup>, 20 mm<sup>2</sup>, and 45 mm<sup>2</sup>, respectively<sup>i</sup>.</p>
<p>Contributing to improved production-line efficiency, all three models deliver high-speed performance, taking only approximately 1.8 seconds to recognize randomly arranged small-scale parts in 3-D. This data is then sent to a robotic controller unit attached to the robotic arm.</p>
<p>The new systems feature high-performance 3-D recognition with a high level of accuracy; the RV300, RV500, and RV1100 achieve exceedingly small error tolerances of less than 0.1 mm<sup>2</sup>, 0.15 mm<sup>2</sup>, 0.5mm<sup>2</sup>, respectively.</p>
<p>Users can easily register data for parts to be picked up by inputting CAD data and by capturing images of the parts randomly assembled in a pile. The 3-D machine vision systems can use computer-generated images to automatically learn how to visually identify the parts. Since no complicated programming is necessary, users can easily re-register parts in accordance with changes in type and shape of parts to be supplied in production.</p>
<p>The Canon 3-D Machine Vision System is capable of instantaneously measuring the location and orientation of designated parts in three dimensions and helps eliminate the need for separate 2-D vision sensors to determine the positioning of parts or a table on which to temporarily place parts during the parts-supply process. Accordingly, the system allows the construction of production lines to be simplified for parts provision while achieving higher efficiency in feeding parts to the production line.</p>
<p>In 2014, global sales of 2-D and 3-D machine vision systems for use with industrial robots totaled approximately $22 million<sup>ii</sup>. The market for 3-D machine vision systems is expected to grow significantly in the future, driven by strong demand for the further automation of production lines used by manufacturers in a variety of industries, including automotive and automotive component manufacturers.</p>
<p>The Canon 3-D Machine Vision Systems, models RV300, RV500, and RV1100 are expected to be available on Oct 1, 2015.</p>
