What can be automated with machine vision?

• Quality Inspection
  Automatic detection of defects, missing components, and assembly errors.
• Measurement
  Inspection of dimensions, distances, and part geometry.
• Part Identification
  Automatic identification of products, parts, variants, colors, or other characteristics.
• Robot Guidance
  Determining the position and orientation of parts for robotic applications.
• Code Reading and Traceability
  Reading DataMatrix, QR, and barcodes and linking them to production data.
• OCR and Text Recognition
  Automatic inspection of text, serial numbers, dates, and markings.

AI-based Machine Vision Tools

Cognex machine vision technology allows you to select the most suitable approach based on the complexity of the application and the level of product variation.

• Rule-based machine vision is well suited for clearly defined tasks such as measurement, part positioning, and robot guidance.
• Edge Learning (AI running directly on the camera) is designed for applications with moderate variation, such as product classification, assembly inspection, and text recognition. It can be trained using a relatively small number of sample images.
• Deep Learning (AI processing outside the camera) is designed for complex applications with high levels of variation, where defining traditional rule-based inspection criteria is difficult—for example, detecting irregular or difficult-to-identify defects. Deep Learning typically uses larger image datasets and can run on a dedicated PC or through the cloud-based OneVision platform.