Hardware manual

US 7,915,570 B2
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The smart camera 110 may include a memory medium on
which computer programs, e. g., text based or graphical pro
grams, may be stored. In other embodiments, con?guration
information may be stored which may be used to con?gure a
programmable hardware element, such as a ?eld program
mable gate array (FPGA), comprised in the smart camera (or
a function module, or the computer) to perform a measure
ment, control, automation, or analysis function, among oth
ers.
The host computer 102 may also include a memory
medium on which computer programs may be stored. In one
embodiment, another memory medium may be located on a
second computer which is coupled to the smart camera 110 or
to the host computer 102 through a network, such as a local
area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless
network, or the Internet. In this instance, the second computer
may operate to provide the program instructions through the
network to the smart camera 110 or host computer 102 for
execution.
FIGS. 2 A-CiImage Processing Systems
FIGS. 2 A-C illustrate image processing or machine vision
systems 500 according to various embodiments of the inven
tion. The image processing system of FIG. 2A may comprise
a computer 102 and a smart camera 110, and may further
include an actuator (e.g., a motion control device) 192. In one
embodiment, the image processing system of FIG. 2B may
comprise smart camera 110 and motion control device 192,
and may not include computer system 102.
The smart camera 110 may include a digital camera that
acquires a digital video signal which comprises an image, or
a sequence of images, or other data desired to be acquired. In
one embodiment, the smart camera 110 may instead include
an analog camera that acquires an analog video signal, and the
smart camera 110 may further include A/D converters for
converting the analog video signal into a digital image.
The smart camera 110 may include a lighting current con
troller allowing it to directly connect to one or more lighting
sources 606. In some embodiments, only one lighting source
is used to illuminate a part being examined. In some embodi
ments, multiple lighting sources are used to illuminate a part
being examined, such as three separate lighting sources that
provide Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) illumination. As
explained below, the lighting current controller may be oper
able to pulse the one or more lighting sources such that the
one or more lighting sources are turned on only for duration of
the actual exposure of one or more images by the smart
camera 110. In some embodiments, the lighting current con
troller may provide a continuous current to the one or more
lighting sources instead of a current pulse.
In the embodiments of FIGS. 2 A-C, the functional unit in
the smart camera 110 (or the computer system 102) may
control the actuator 192. Examples of motion control func
tions include moving a part or object to be imaged by a
camera, rejecting a part on an assembly line, or placing or
af?xing components on a part being assembled, or a robotics
application, among others.
FIGS. 3 A-BiImage Acquisition System Having a Smart
Camera
FIGS. 3 A-B illustrate an image acquisition system with a
smart camera 110. The smart camera 110 may include a
housing which encloses a portion or all of the smart camera
110 components, or may be comprised on a frame which
primarily provides structural support for the smart camera
110 components. In some embodiments, a lens may be
attached directly to the housing. In one embodiment, the
housing may have a plurality of sides. For example, the plu
rality of sides may comprise top, bottom, left, right, front and
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back sides. Therefore, the smart camera 110 may include a
housing having a plurality of sides and a lens directly attached
to the housing for acquiring an image of an object. In some
embodiments, the smart camera may also include all the
elements shown in FIGS. 5A-B, 6, and 7, but without the
chassis and/ or the imager/lens. Thus the smart camera may be
built into a custom chassis at a later time and may use a
custom and/ or external imager/lens.
As FIG. 3B also shows, the smart camera 110 may include
a chassis which includes a plurality of expansion slots for
receiving function modules 108. The function modules 108
may thus provide a mechanism for expanding the capabilities
of the smart camera 110 in a modular fashion, such as
described in US. Pat. No. 7,327,396. In some embodiments,
the chassis does not contain any slots for the function mod
ules.
FIGS. 4 A-CiConnectivity Options of a Smart Camera
FIGS. 4A-C illustrate some embodiments of various con
nectivity options of a smart camera with an integrated lighting
module. It is noted that the smart camera 110 illustrated in
FIGS. 4A-C is meant to be exemplary only, and is not
intended to limit the form or function of the smart camera to
any particular embodiment.
As indicated in FIG. 4A, in some embodiments, the smart
camera 110 may be able to connect to various devices, such as
a lens 280, one or more off-the-shelf lighting sources 606, a
camera ?xture 608 for mounting the smart camera 110, an
enclosure 610 such as an all-weather enclosure, direct I/O
612, an external power supply 614, Ethernet expansion I/O
616, operator interface 618 (such as for Human-Machine
Interface HMI), and/ or software 620, among others. The abil
ity to connect one or more off-the-shelf lighting sources 606
allows the user of the smart camera to directly connect anduse
various light sources available on the market as needed for the
particular application.
FIGS. 4B and 4C show various connectivity options for a
smart camera 110, according to some embodiments. FIG. 4B
shows how an external lighting current controller 622 may be
used in conjunction with the smart camera 110. The smart
camera may also include one or more ports (not shown) for
connections with one or more external lighting current con
trollers and/or external power supplies. Also, an external
power supply 614 may be used in order to adequately power
the one or more external lighting sources 606. In some
embodiments the smart camera may be able to synchronize
timing of the integrated universal current controller with tim
ing of the external lighting controller. For example, the FPGA
and/or the processing unit may ensure that the integrated
lighting controller and any external lighting controller are
able to illuminate one or more UUT’ s using proper timing for
a desired exposure interval.
FIG. 4C shows how the smart camera 110 with an inte
grated lighting current controller 290 may be used to directly
connect to one or more lighting sources 606, without the need
to use either an (additional) external power supply 614 or an
external lighting current controller 622. The solution shown
in FIG. 4C thus eliminates external hardware elements to save
space, power, and cost that can be incurred by using the
external hardware elements.
FIG. 5A-BiSmart Camera Block Diagram
FIG. 5A is a block diagram of a smart camera 110 with
programmable hardware. As may be seen, this embodiment
uses a combination of processor/memory 212/214 and pro
grammable hardware 206, e.g., FPGA, to perform image
processing (and/or other) functions. For example, the pro
grammable hardware 206 element in the smart camera 110
may be con?gurable to perform an image processing function