A silent revolution is taking place in factories, and machine vision is rapidly becoming a key enabling technology for automation in manufacturing. To support this trend, Teledyne e2v has released turnkey optical modules that aim to reduce the time and cost of developing embedded-vision systems for robotics, logistics, and laboratory equipment.

According to VDMA, the European machine-vision industry is “in an excellent position,” and the German machine-vision industry is characterized by record sales and dynamic growth. In 2021, the turnover in Germany alone increased by 16%, with sales of €3.1 billion. This year, the turnover in machine vision is expected to grow by 5%, with sales of €3.2 billion.

It is no coincidence that the Vision trade fair is held in Stuttgart, Germany, every year in early October.

This year, Teledyne e2v will demonstrate its 2-megapixel Optimom, a range of turnkey optical modules that can be “instantly” integrated into embedded-vision systems. It is powered by Teledyne e2v’s proprietary low-noise global shutter image sensor and comprises a compact board, a standard FPC connector, and complementary lenses.

The development of a ready-to-use imaging solution came from an observation made when interviewing long-time customers and discussing future projects with new contacts, Marie-Charlotte Leclerc, product marketing manager at Teledyne e2v, told EE Times Europe.

The use cases for vision-based products have multiplied over the past few years with the emergence of automated guided vehicles, drones, smart shops, and wearables, Leclerc noted. “This led completely new people to the field of imaging. To enable this population of ‘non-experts’ to integrate our products, it was necessary to provide them with not just a single image sensor chip but a ready-to-use vision extension for the rest of their system in the form of an optical module.”

Teledyne realized that its customers, most of whom are experts in imaging and image sensor integration, were looking for the same kind of turnkey solutions. Leclerc said, “The acceleration of product life cycles leads them to reduce development times and costs to ensure a safe return on investment. In addition, with the broadening of product portfolios to cover multiple vision use cases and the multiple new expertise fields emerging, such as AI, they now have less resources available to work on the integration of imaging solutions for each project.”

Teledyne’s Optimom 2M features a native MIPI CSI-2 protocol and a standard FPC connector to connect to embedded processing boards.

To reduce development time and costs, Leclerc said Teledyne focused on three main aspects:

Teledyne has already supplied its solution to early customers and selected partners. Providing feedback, they outlined “the flexibility to choose different lens options” and indicated that “having a lens included makes the product instantly ready to use.”

Optimom 2M is the first member of its MIPI CSI-2 optical module line, and Leclerc confirmed Teledyne is already working on the next releases. Although she could not give many details, she said the company is working on two aspects:

Optimom 2M has been designed to accelerate the development of embedded-vision systems for robotics, logistics, drones, and laboratory equipment. More specifically, Leclerc said it is generating interests for quality inspection systems for production lines in factories, for vision camera heads to be placed at the end of the robotic arms for pick-and-place tasks, for tracking multiple parcels in logistics centers, and for tracking samples inside automated laboratories where the handling and tracking of glass samples are fully automated to limit human error.

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Anne-Françoise Pelé is editor-in-chief of EE Times Europe.