Lights, Camera, LabVIEW – Introducing the NI Smart Camera

Tour any modern production facility and you will recognize a fairly obvious and pervasive trend – namely that embedded, programmable devices have become a popular platform for several different types of measurements.  

 

These embedded, programmable devices come in many forms including embedded data loggers, SCADA systems, programmable automation controllers (PACs), and intelligent motor drives. Just as Ethernet has provided a common hardware interface to connect these devices, the NI LabVIEW graphical programming environment has provided a common software interface to program them. 

 

To add to the growing list of embedded industrial devices you can program with LabVIEW, National Instruments is introducing the first in a family of NI Smart Cameras. These smart cameras are ideally suited for industrial vision applications such as packaging inspection, assembly verification, 1D and 2D code reading, and motion guidance. NI Smart Cameras employ the same NI-IMAQ driver and NI Vision Development Module used with PC-based systems, simplifying the transition from design to deployment. 

 

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Figure 1. NI Smart Cameras analyze images directly on the camera with a PowerPC processorrunning LabVIEW Real-Time and the entire suite of NI vision algorithms.

 

NI Smart Cameras

A typical industrial camera acquires and transmits images through a standard camera bus, such as Camera Link or IEEE 1394, to a host PC or vision system that processes the images to extract meaningful information. NI Smart Cameras simplify this process by analyzing images directly on the camera with a PowerPC processor running LabVIEW Real-Time and the entire suite of NI vision algorithms. The first model in the family, the NI 1722 Smart Camera, runs a 400 MHz version of the PowerPC, and the second camera, the NI 1742 Smart Camera, features a 533 MHz version of the PowerPC. 

 

The image sensor used inside these two smart cameras is a high-quality charge-coupled device (CCD) capable of acquiring VGA resolution (640 x 480) monochrome images at up to 60 frames per second. The CCD sensor produces sharp images, increasing the accuracy of algorithms such as edge-detection and pattern-matching algorithms. The combination of the PowerPC processor with the CCD image sensor, both powered by LabVIEW, provides an easily distributed, all-in-one vision system that transmits inspection results instead of raw images.   

 

To communicate results to other industrial devices, NI Smart Cameras provide built-in digital I/O and support both Ethernet- and serial-based industrial protocols such as Modbus TCP. The digital I/O lines on the NI Smart Cameras are optoisolated for direct connectivity with industrial devices such as triggers and actuators. To simplify Ethernet-based communication, NI Smart Cameras include two gigabit Ethernet ports. With one port connected to an industrial network to report inspection results, the other port can directly communicate with PACs, such as NI CompactRIO or Compact FieldPoint, for expansion I/O or to industrial devices, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) or human machine interfaces (HMIs). 

 

Additional Benefits of the NI 1742 Smart Camera

Along with a faster processor, the NI 1742 Smart Camera  includes quadrature encoder support and a built-in strobe controller and drive for LED lighting. By working with quadrature encoders, the NI 1742 Smart Camera can synchronize inspections with linear and rotary drive systems. This feature simplifies timing in complex applications where consistency is critical to system success. 

 

To directly illuminate objects under the camera, the NI 1742 Smart Camera also features NI direct drive lighting technology. For most vision systems, lighting is typically controlled by an external LED strobe controller. In this scenario, trigger signals are sent to the controller to tell it when to strobe or flash a light head. Strobe controllers can be costly additions to machine vision applications. To lower costs and simplify wiring, the NI 1742 Smart Camera has a built-in lighting controller so you can directly drive lights from the camera itself. The built-in direct drive lighting controller can provide a constant DC current of 500 mA, as well as a strobed current of up to 1 A. With strobe lighting, you can increase the intensity produced by up to four times without harming the light head.  

 

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Figure 2. All NI Smart Cameras include Vision Builder AI software. For more advanced applications,the cameras are also full-featured LabVIEW Real-Time targets.

 

Unmatched Scalability

All NI Smart Cameras include NI Vision Builder for Automated Inspection (AI) software. Vision Builder AI is a configurable vision application development environment you can use to build and deploy complete machine vision applications quickly and easily. Vision Builder AI applications are based on an easy-to-use state diagram model. With this model, you can configure sophisticated inspections that include loops and branches without programming. Vision Builder AI also includes every feature needed to develop complete machine vision systems, including advanced triggering, acquisition from data acquisition devices, communication with HMIs and PLCs, and control of digital I/O lines. 

 

For more advanced applications, NI Smart Cameras are also full-featured LabVIEW Real-Time targets – bringing the power of LabVIEW and Vision Development Module algorithms to this new platform. Other modules supported in LabVIEW Real-Time, such as the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module, also work with the cameras.   

 

The NI vision hardware platform ranges from PC-based systems, to PCI- and PXI-based systems, to compact vision systems, all the way to the sensor itself with the new NI Smart Cameras. This entire range of hardware is supported by both LabVIEW and Vision Builder AI. This means you can design and prototype your machine vision algorithms using an off-the-shelf machine vision camera connected to an NI frame grabber and deploy that same application to an NI Smart Camera with minimal changes to your LabVIEW code or Vision Builder AI inspection. 

 

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Figure 3. The NI vision hardware platform ranges from PC-based systems to the sensor itself with the NI Smart Camera. LabVIEW and Vision Builder AI work with this entire range of hardware so you can easily movefrom designing and prototyping to final deployment.

 

The Rest of the Picture

Vision systems rarely exist in an environment without other I/O and enterprise connectivity. They must receive data from and communicate results to other industrial devices. NI Smart Cameras are designed to tightly integrate with NI PACs and HMIs. This simplifies the process of adding machine vision to an application built on the NI PAC platform because a single LabVIEW Project can contain your NI Smart Camera inspection VIs along with your code for motion control, data acquisition, and operator interface. You can complete all the communication with shared variables, simplifying the task of transferring data among the different components of your system. 

 

To complement the range of NI Smart Cameras, NI offers a large selection of machine vision accessories to build your system in one step versus creating custom parts in-house. Lenses, lighting, mounting brackets, cables, and more are now available directly from National Instruments. This helps you bring together all of the components you need for your machine vision application. 

 

All-in-One Solution

NI Smart Cameras provide an all-in-one solution for a large variety of industrial machine vision applications. By combining a high-quality image sensor and high-performance 32-bit processor, NI Smart Cameras are powerful new tools for the engineer looking for an easy-to-use, complete solution for machine vision. With the power of shared variables over Ethernet, integrating machine vision into new or existing systems has never been easier. 

 

– Matthew Slaughter

Matthew Slaughter is an NI vision product engineer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Texas A&M University. 

 

Obtain more information on NI Smart Cameras, including how to order.

 

This article first appeared in the Q4 2007 issue of Instrumentation Newsletter.

 

Reader Comments | Submit a comment »

Great!
Looks good, but maybe future versions may come smaller. I'm thinking of a miniaturised version that can "crawl" in a crude oil pipe network, and record and analyse images for pipe integrity.
- Nurai Oganla, OCI Automation Ltd. ociltd@yahoo.com - Dec 23, 2007