Demo: An embedded vision system for high frame rate visual servoing

Abstract

The frame rate of commercial off-the-shelf industrial cameras is breaking the threshold of 1000 frames-per-second, the sample rate required in high performance motion control systems. On the one hand, it enables computer vision as a cost-effective feedback source; On the other hand, it imposes multiple challenges on the vision processing system. The authors have designed and implemented an FPGA-based embedded vision system in support of high frame rate visual servoing applications. The vision system will be demonstrated together with a mechanical system for vision based inkjet printing. This demonstration shows that, with off-the-shelf components, a robust, hard realtime, low delay embedded vision system is feasible for industrial applications. The research aspect of the experiment has been published in previous papers of the authors. This demonstration paper emphasises on the practical issues for the implementation of such system, and the lessons learned from this practice.