Segment
Machine vision: letting a machine see the work
Machine vision is the oldest successful application of computer vision and still the largest by installed base. It guides robots to parts that are not exactly where expected, and it inspects output at rates and consistencies no human can match.
In one sentence
Machine vision is the use of imaging and image processing in industrial settings to locate parts, guide robots, measure dimensions and inspect for defects.
Two jobs dominate. Guidance tells a robot where a part actually is, which removes the need for precise fixturing and is what makes flexible cells possible. Inspection decides whether output is acceptable, at line rate, with a consistency that manual checking cannot sustain across a shift.
The unglamorous truth of the field is that lighting is more important than the algorithm. A well-lit scene in which the feature of interest has strong contrast can be handled by simple, fast, explainable processing. A poorly lit one requires a model to compensate for the optics, and that model will fail in ways nobody predicted.
How this breaks down
Split by what is being sensed and what is done with it.
- Machine visionthis page
- Industrial imagingWhy the illumination matters more than the algorithm, and what makes a camera industrial.Definition page
- 3D sensingStructured light, stereo and laser profiling — and why bin picking was hard for so long.Definition page
- Inspection softwareRule-based measurement, learned defect detection, and the problem of having almost no defects to learn from.Definition pageChokepoint
What this depends on
Technology dependencies are solved by engineering; supply dependencies are solved by building something, which takes years.
- Supply chain
Image sensors and optics
Industrial cameras rest on the same sensor supply chain as consumer and automotive imaging.
Compound semiconductors - Technology
Inference at the edge
Learned inspection runs at line rate on hardware in the cell, which is an embedded inference problem.
Serving engines
What depends on this
Other pages in this map that name Machine vision as something they cannot do without.
- Semiconductors · Advanced packagingBonding equipmentEach die is located optically before it is placed. Placement accuracy is set by what the vision system can resolve and how fast it can resolve it, which is where the throughput goes.
- Robotics and automation · MechanicsEnd effectorsHandling variety requires knowing what is there and how it responds, which pushes the problem back to sensing.
- Robotics and automation · Control and softwareRobot softwareSoftware that adapts to where a part actually is depends on the vision system that finds it.
Companies across Machine vision
Every company named on a step below this page, ordered by how many of those steps it appears at. Compiled from the pages themselves rather than written separately, so the two cannot disagree. Not a ranking and not a recommendation.
- HexagonStockholm2 steps
- BaslerGermany1 step
- Landing AIPrivate1 step
- MVTec SoftwarePrivate1 step
5 more companies appear at a single step each; they are named on the pages for those steps.
How these pages are written
Each page explains one technology in plain language, states what it depends on, and names companies by what they supply at that step. Company roles are described qualitatively and deliberately carry no market shares, revenue figures or rankings — those change faster than an explainer can, and a stale number is worse than none. Ticker links point at company pages on this site and are provided for reference only.
Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or a forecast. A company named on a page about a technology is not thereby a good investment, and the chokepoints described are structural facts about supply chains rather than predictions about prices. Technology moves; where a page describes something as unresolved or in development, that was true when it was written.
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