Vision sensor replaces PLC

A comprehensive software update is making VISOR® vision sensors from SensoPart even smarter and more versatile: As of now, multiple detection results can be compared, processed and analysed directly in the sensor. Communication with the parent control system is therefore considerably facilitated, and the control system can even be omitted at times.

In automated industrial processes across the world, a vast number of decisions must be taken every second – not just by those persons involved but also by vision sensors, such as the VISOR® from SensoPart. The sensor decides, for example, whether a part is correct and fully assembled, whether it is properly positioned or whether it has been correctly identified.

In many of these cases, such decisions result from the simple linkage of individual detector results using logical operators. Thanks to these options and the sensors’ ease of use, the popularity of vision sensors continues to grow among users, who are looking to solve more and more complex applications. However, to achieve a safe and reliable good/bad decision, more complex links are required between detector results.

Thanks to the current software release 2.2 for the VISOR® sensor series, such complicated applications can now be solved with a user-friendly vision sensor.

The new detector “Result processing” allows the flexible linkage of results from other detectors and, for example, the execution of simple calculations, the processing and comparison of character strings, as well as logical decisions.

The transfer of this intelligence from the control system to the vision sensor further simplifies the setup of image processing applications. Complex protocols for data exchange between the sensor and control system are no longer necessary, and instead the VISOR® sends simple digital good/bad signals to the PLC. Consequently, there is no need for coordination between configuration of the vision sensor and PLC programming. In simpler application cases, an external control system can be dispensed with entirely.

Calculate, compare, analyse

Thanks to over 50 integrated operators, the options for processing results within the VISOR® are extremely diverse and extend far beyond the previous offering in this product and price category. It is, for example, possible to calculate the dimensions and positions of objects or check that the content of different codes match. The VISOR® can inform the PLC, for example, whether any two drill holes are concentric to one another, whether the printed label on a box is always at the same distance from the edge, whether part A has been fitted to part B at the correct angle, or whether the data matrix code on pharmaceutical packaging contains the same information as the adjacent printed plain text.

Such evaluation options were previously only possible with much more complex and appropriately expensive image processing systems – now they are available for the first time at the cheaper price of a vision sensor. As with all sensors in SensoPart’s VISOR® range, setup is simple and intuitive.

The software update with the new detector “Result processing” is now immediately available for free download by all users of the VISOR® V10, V20 and V50 series in the application- specific versions VISOR® Object, VISOR® Robotic, VISOR® Code Reader and VISOR® Allround, in the Advanced and Professional models.