The project conducted for Prevent was intended for quality control of car seat cover production.
Five high-resolution cameras, a custom- made stand for covers, and a high-performance PC, containing memory cards for image acquisition (firewire), were employed in the project.
The specific feature of the system is the use of configurable machine vision software development environment (Vision Builder for Automated Inspection, produced by National Instruments). It enables a simple and flexible design of image processing based process control. A cover which is put on the custom-made stand is monitored by five cameras. The acquired images are processed and different cover parameters, such as colour, component placement (e.g. wires or stitches), cover shape, etc, are recovered. The operator can easily upgrade the system for different types of covers using Vision Builder for Automated Inspection. At the initial project phase, Wise Technologies developed a control system for five different cover types.
The project proved the possibility of simultaneous image analysis and quality control with multiple cameras.