"I know of no other lighting system with such flexibility and precision"

Andreas Waldl: If you'd asked me that ten years ago, I'm sure I would have said no. But, after a decade of working with machine vision, I've come to a very different conclusion: Many of the tasks we want modern machines to perform can only be done when the vision system and the rest of the machine automation come from a single source.

Waldl: When it comes to the quality of the captured images, the lighting is actually even more important than the camera. Ultimately, the success or failure of a given machine vision application comes down to the timing, intensity and homogeneity of the flash. That's why we need an integrated lighting system.

Waldl: Let's look at a conventional light. In most cases, there is only one way to control it: with a digital trigger input. Some lights also have a potentiometer to manually adjust the intensity. Sure, there are applications where that's enough. But when things are moving faster and the products being manufactured change more frequently...

Waldl: No, and that's another benefit of the tight integration. Since all the variables from the control system are also available for vision functions, we're able to offer our customers a whole array of functions they can use right in their familiar engineering environment. All the user has to do is pick the components they need and then configure them.

Waldl: Not entirely. It is true that our cameras, lights and machine controllers complement each other perfectly. But: many of the advantages offered by our lights are just as applicable with third-party cameras. Our lighting system can even make up for some of the weaknesses of other camera systems. Because of the sensors they use, most cameras have so much jitter that it's impossible to synchronize them properly with the movement of the machine's axes. It's an easy enough problem to solve, however: Our lights flash with a precision and a minimal pulse duration of one microsecond. One of our customers takes advantage of that to get sharp images of products moving at a speed of 50 meters per second.

Waldl: System integrators often have to balance a complex set of requirements. Yet, even if they need to use a specific camera system for a certain task, they're still able use our lighting system. They can simply use one of our standard interface modules to connect one or more B&R lights to their machine network.

Waldl: Our system can do a whole lot more than a conventional flash controller, which can only use hardwired external trigger sources and control a limited number of lights. With B&R, the bandwidth ranges from a single light to a combination of any number of lights, triggered by freely selectable variables and signals. The user can take hardware and software from B&R's standard portfolio and put together a completely flexible control solution with its own web-based user interface. This solution can then be addressed via any communication protocol – including, of course, OPC UA. And the B&R system is already prepared to support the TSN Ethernet extension.

Waldl: We've got a great starting lineup on the field that's able to provide excellent solutions for a whole lot of applications. But we've got a lot more up our sleeve. We're already working on a number of solutions and products that will be joining the portfolio over the next few years. I can't reveal any details yet, but I can tell you this much: We've begun a very exciting journey and there's no end in sight.