Humans and robots working together. It's an increasingly common topic in the industrial sector. Dutch company IFM has developed a new 3D camera that allows autonomously operating robots to better "see" their surroundings.
Sensors are the senses for automated systems. This is especially true for partially autonomous robots, which when interacting with humans are also known as collaborative robots, co-robots and cobots. Recognising objects and people in their immediate environment is important here.
Only when the controller of such co-robots has a three-dimensional image of its environment can it move independently and safely. For such applications in industrial environments, IFM has developed its new 3D camera O3X.
3D camera
The camera is based on TOF (time of flight) technology, which relies on the runtime measurement of light between camera and object. The technology wird developed by IFM subsidiary PMD Technologies and is used, among others, smartphones from Lenovo and Asus.
The O3X has a resolution of 224 x 172 pixels and an image repetition rate of 20 Hz. This enables accurate recognition of objects up to a distance of 4 m. As the running id and thus the distance measurement is done with infrared, the camera is not sensitive to disturbing light influences and also independent of lighting.
3D image data is transmitted via the integrated Ethernet interface. Windows SDK, Linux Lib and the active support of ROS (Robotic Operating System) on GitHub help with fast integration.
The camera is housed in an enclosure suitable for industrial use and is about the size of a matchbox. As a result, the camera also meets protection class IP54. Typical application areas of the new O3X camera can be found in autonomously moving robotos, in logistics applications and in autonomous driving vehicles.
Source: AT Aandrijftechniek.
