Automated Labeling Based on Color, Shape, Size, and Location Inspection

To illustrate some of the ways WAY-2C can be used to automate this type of operation, we configured a system to inspect and label a tray containing a plate and possibly a cup. The plate, placed in the lower right corner of the tray, can be red, yellow, blue or white and either round or rectangular. The cup, which if present is orange, is to be placed somewhere along the left side of the tray. Typical images from the inspection camera are shown to the left and below.

Those experienced in color machine vision will recognize that the lighting is far from ideal and the complex color distributions would make training difficult if not impossible for conventional color machine vision systems.

The specific objectives of the exercise were to:

1. Identify the color, corner shape, length and width of the plate;
2. Decide whether the orange cup is present on the left side of the tray, and if so its approximate position;
3. Print a label describing the plate and the cup position.

The inspection locations are outlined in the image to the right. Plate color selection is based on the Color ROI. Plate length and width are measured using their respective Search Regions using ROI's oriented in the direction of the colored lines near the ends of the region. Shape (rectangular or round) is determined by the Corner ROI color. Cup presence and approximate position is determined from the specific Cup ROI's which are classified as containing a cup.

When the classifications and measurements are complete for the tray, they are passed to a separate program to generate the label. A typical label resulting from this inspection is shown at right. Obviously the same approach can be used for generating bar-codes, monitoring product flow, etc.

Again the inspection locations are indicated by the colored rectangles.