Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1999

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Advanced Technologies

The 1986 revenues for machine Vision systems and components exceeded $400 million. By 1991 this figure grew to over $2 billion. The forecasted 40% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for Machine Vision Systems will surpass that of automated manufacturing. This growth is given in terms of actual investment. But study shows that only big automobile industries are developing vision cells with robot. Others prefer subcontracting from specialists. It is because," lack of knowledge" to justify and apply machine vision to their manufacturing operations. The current number of total machine vision installations is smaller as compared to the number of potential other installations. Vendor's and. systems integrators agree that, outside of a few dozen in-house developments, the knowledge among end users is extremely limited. End users knows only the general concept and information to examine their own manufacturing operation. With this study it shows that there is a pressing need to upgrade quality, accuracy and knowledge about Robot Vision .It is becoming more necessary and important for depth study of vision and it's integration with robot. And so the objective of this research is to set up an industrial-robot vision cell. The research mainly concentrates on increasing the capabilities of the KUKA robot and its off-line programming system. Main emphasis is given on assembling Camera with Kuka robot to form vision integrated robot cell.