Robotic vision for a high-precision dispensing robot

Customized machine vision system in a droplet dispensing robot

Recently, we have added a machine vision system to a dispensing robot; hereby enabling our customer – Philips Handheld Diagnostics – to use extra features in the dispensing process.

Robotic vision toolbox

The machine vision system is based on an industrial camera close to the needles, with a lens, a front and a back-light and software, which is actually a robotic vision toolbox providing several vision functions and algorithms. It measures coordinates and distances and quantifies the droplets in terms of shape, area and amount of liquid.

Video dispensing robot with machine vision system

To illustrate how it works, our vision & measurement engineer Gianluca Agostinelli zooms in on a specific application in this video about robotic vision.

Gianluca Agostinelli, vision and measurement engineer at Philips Innovation Services:

I would like to show you a machine vision system that we have just realized. This is basically composed with a dispensing robot, a robot that you can buy in the market as it is. This machine is really precise: there is a stage moving in three directions, there are needles which are able to suck liquid and to dispense small droplets cross a certain area.

What we added to the system is a vision toolbox. It is composed of a camera, a light, and software. This vision toolbox is able to increase the precision of the dispensing process. An operator load, some cartridges on that and the machine goes to specific points and has to dispense one droplet. You can see the real position of the cartridges after the load of the operator. I can send the coordinates to the machine in order to shift a little bit the position of the needles, in a way that the droplet will be placed in a much better position.

The interesting part is that you can really send new parameters to the process itself while the processes running. In the end it is a scalable solution that we can customize based on the requirements of the customer.

Would you like to know more about robotic vision?

Would you like to know more? Don’t hesitate to contact our experts or discuss your challenge with our business development managers or start a conversation about customization of machine vision system in dispensing robot and other innovations in robot vision, then talk with us.

You can also read more on our service description page regarding custom manufacturing processes and watch two customer testimonials.