[iforce2d] has an interesting video exploring whether the OpenMV H7 board is viable as a flyby camera for pick and place, able to quickly snap a shot of a moving part instead of requiring the part to be held still in front of the camera. The answer seems to be yes!
The H7 is OpenMV‘s most recent device, and it supports a variety of useful add-ons such as a global shutter camera sensor, which [iforce2d] is using here. OpenMV has some absolutely fantastic hardware, and is able to snap the image, do blob detection (and other image processing), display on a small LCD, and send all the relevant data over the UART as well as accept commands on what to look for, all in one neat package.
It used to be that global shutter cameras were pretty specialized pieces of equipment, but they’re much more common now. There’s even a Raspberry Pi global shutter camera module, and it’s just so much nicer for machine vision applications.
Watch the test setup as [iforce2d] demonstrates and explains an early proof of concept. The metal fixture on the motor swings over the camera’s lens with a ring light for even illumination, and despite the moving object, the H7 gets an awfully nice image. Check it out in the video, embedded below.
They are sold out.
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4478
I’m glad the H7 provides such good images – I hear the next version of the camera, the H8, will be widely disliked. ;)
The next version will be a M8 and more friendly.
This is only a marginal advantage for pick & place as you still need to move the part to where the camera is – it only saves the stop/start time.
My 25 year old P&P uses a much better method- when the head is fully raised, it flips a mirror under the nozzle at 45 degrees, and images using a horizontal camera mounted to the head. That way imaging adds no time at all to what it takes to move from the feeder to the placement position. No need for a fancy camera or flash illuminator. Only works for smaller parts up to about 6x6mm, but that’s usually 90+% of parts on most boards
H7 board is way overpriced for the “value”, you can get SBC with camera and much more memory and processing power for half of that.
Which boards would you recommend as an alternative?
Correction: the H7 is not “OpenMV‘s most recent device”, it’s an old model they don’t make anymore. I would also use some different wording in the title, because saying “OpenMV promises” might be taken the wrong way.