MONO3D Puts Power, Features in Simple Package ISRA's MONO3D Vision System Automates Body Shop Operations Through Vision- Guided Robot Autoracking Solution Lansing, MI Darmstadt September 5, 2005 Confirming ISRA VISION dominance in three-dimension (3D) vision applications for the automotive industry, automation specialist Comau Pico (Southfield, MI) has purchased twenty (20) MONO3D machine vision systems to automate body shop operations at two North American automotive manufacturing locations. Automating an assembly line that depends on randomly placed components in shipping racks, called autoracking, is among the most difficult automation tasks facing industry today. After evaluating several vision systems for robot guidance, Comau Pico purchased 20 of ISRA VISION s MONO3D vision systems. Each system includes cameras, cabling, LED lights and MONO3D software running on an ISRA VISION Controller. ISRA's National Sales Manager for North America, Kevin Taylor, says "These systems will be used to remove sheet metal parts from racks for placement into fixtures for the assembly of the car body eliminating manual load. MONO3D's small footprint enables the cameras and lights to be mounted on the robot end effector to improve the overall accuracy of robot guidance solution. MONO3D will locate the part in six degrees of freedom using predefined part features such as holes or edges and guide the robot to the part in 3D space. Page 1
ISRA VISION released MONO3D in early 2004 in response to customer requests for a more cost-effective 3D automated machine vision system with a smaller footprint for robot guidance, 3D inspection and similar applications. MONO3D only requires one camera to measure multiple points in the camera's 3D field of view with accuracy and speed comparable to more expensive laser-based and multi-camera based 3D machine vision systems. With large parts multiple cameras can be utilized to determine the objects 3D location providing considerable speed and cost savings compared to traditional stereovision systems, which would require multiple cameras for each field of view. The simplicity of the system was one of several reasons behind Comau Pico choosing ISRA's MONO3D system, says ISRA's Taylor. "We offered a solution that was affordable, technically superior, and very robust," Taylor noted. "We demonstrated the advantages of our standard robot guidance software, which can be applied to 2D, 2.5D, and 3D applications throughout the automotive manufacturing process. ISRA also has a strong global presence which allows us to offer our customers proven products to standardize applications at their facilities throughout the world." MONO3D: The Facts MONO3D extracts 3D location data by locating three or more features in an image, determining the spatial relationships between those features and comparing that to stored 3D models based on CAD data. ISRA VISION s MONO3D system can precisely establish all six degrees of freedom (position and orientation) of any point within the camera's field of view. Page 2
This approach not only drastically reduces the outlay for equipment, but also the cost of installation, calibration and operation. MONO3D's single camera approach and flexibility enables more efficient image processing, reducing hardware costs on both the acquisition and processing ends of the machine vision system, while allowing customers to improve throughput based on the specific needs of the application. MONO3D's easy configurability gives the user maximum flexibility to determine spatial resolution, speed and throughput by accommodating a virtually unlimited number of additional features into its calculations or by limiting the 3D vision to 2D or 2.5 D (x, y, rotation, and a scaling of z), depending on the needs of the application. MONO3D's small footprint, ease-of-integration and ease-of-use opens up a wealth of new automation applications in multiple industries, including robot guidance, automotive, medical, semiconductor, durable goods, and R&D to name a few. MONO3D is a robust, and highly adaptable system that be integrated into any number of production processes and is suitable for all industrial robot vision and 3D measurement applications from the micro- to the macro- scale where the position of the work pieces must be determined in 3D and with up to six degrees of freedom. About ISRA VISION: ISRA VISION is the world s leading supplier of robot vision and highspeed web inspection systems. The basic product line is complemented by machine vision systems for code inspection, assembly verification and bead inspection. The systems are used successfully world-wide in many industries such as automotive, plastics, non-woven, printing, and glass industries. In these sectors, Page 3
we are focused on the entire production chain with standard solutions. Images Crankshaft housing: position determination using mono 3D robot vision (MONO3D_1.jpg) Page 4
The principle of mono 3D robot vision (MONO3D_2.jpg) Page 5