Programming without code

Programming an effective inspection regimen is one of the most demanding aspects of setting up a vision system, as developers often need to write a new program for each product type. And with innovations in electronics technology making extreme product customization more practical, manufacturers may have to dramatically increase their programming efforts to cope.

Graphical tools permit users to create inspection programs without writing code. Courtesy of Cognex.

Q: How will these new features help users on the factory floor?

A: We targeted the solution at customers who don't want to do all of their own programming. At the same time, for manufacturers who still want to write code to get the vision systems to perform inspection, we include a complete set of programming tools. The intent is to give users a point-and-click alternative to writing code, and to provide both capabilities on the same system.

Q: How does this differ from what people have done in the past?

A: We divide the development into two complementary tasks that involve people with different skill sets. Programmers can take advantage of a full Visual Basic toolkit to construct operator interfaces and perform complex database interactions, for example. The people who train the system using the graphical tools do not need to know how to program at all. An interactive vision development environment called QuickBuild (figure) is used to define an object's edges and other features with simple mouse clicks. Turning over much of the development to users who can complete the task graphically frees programmers for other projects, which maximizes programmer productivity.

In addition, in a conventional setup, if you wanted to find a feature in an image, you had to begin with a known-good image for comparison. Our approach includes the PatMax geometric pattern matcher so that users can train the system without ever generating an actual image. They even have the option of starting the process by reading information directly from a CAD file.

Q: How does the interactive tool work?

A: The QuickBuild environment is used to set up the vision piece. Which cameras do you use? How do you trigger them? How do I decide between "pass" and "fail"? From the output, the application wizard creates an operator interface that can be delivered directly to the factory floor. It works with Visual Basic, but most of the VB activity goes on behind the scenes.

Despite the VB content, users don't need a VB license. We've written the software on top of a Microsoft .NET environment, and we have included a compiler. The vision system offers a lot of hardware flexibility. For example, we support a wide range of frame grabbers and direct-connect acquisition techniques.

Our goal has always been to make our systems as easy as possible to use to allow our customers to work faster and more easily and thereby reduce inspection costs. These new features help further that effort.