Recent advances in machine vision technologies and motion control present tremendous opportunities for automated optical inspection (AOI) systems. Thanks to recent developments in these fundamental building block technologies, today’s AOI systems can carry out inspections with a higher resolution and accuracy, and with a much faster throughput than before. High-speed AOI systems are now being used across a wide range of industries including: automotive, aerospace, semiconductor and electronics, medical device manufacturing, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), precision mechanical components and assemblies, and more.

Along with these opportunities there are some significant challenges as well. To determine the most appropriate solution that provides the best results for a given application, it is important to find the proper trade-off balance.

In the case of motion systems, significant improvements include higher speeds, steeper acceleration and deceleration profiles, finer positional control, and faster convergence properties. Under the right circumstances, all of these factors can be used to achieve faster and more accurate point-to-point displacements, and thus increase overall throughput.

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