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Scale and energise your retail strategy with a digital backbone that unifies your team, informs priorities and drives results with Zebra's retail technology solutions.
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RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
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The Zebra Aurora suite of machine vision software enables users to solve their track-and-trace, vision inspection and industrial automation needs.
Zebra Aurora Focus brings a new level of simplicity to controlling enterprise-wide manufacturing and logistics automation solutions. With this powerful interface, it’s easy to set up, deploy and run Zebra’s Fixed Industrial Scanners and Machine Vision Smart Cameras, eliminating the need for different tools and reducing training and deployment time.
Aurora Imaging Library™, formerly Matrox Imaging Library, machine-vision software development kit (SDK) has a deep collection of tools for image capture, processing, analysis, annotation, display, and archiving. Code-level customization starts here.
Aurora Design Assistant™, formerly Matrox Design Assistant, integrated development environment (IDE) is a flowchart-based platform for building machine vision applications, with templates to speed up development and bring solutions online quicker.
Designed for experienced programmers proficient in vision applications, Aurora Vision Library provides the same sophisticated functionality as our Aurora Vision Studio software but presented in programming language.
Aurora Vision Studio, an image processing software for machine & computer vision engineers, allows quick creation, integration & monitoring of powerful OEM vision applications.
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Industrial Bakery Increases Throughput, Lowers Errors with Zebra Technologies Machine Vision
Powerful machine vision software solves complex packaged food challenges
BOURNE END, England – April 17, 2024 – Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), a leading digital solution provider enabling businesses to intelligently connect data, assets, and people, today announced that an industrial bakery has secured lower error rates and higher throughput of goods with a modern machine vision solution using Zebra’s Aurora Design Assistant™ machine vision software.
The bakery can now inspect its full range of breads using a single machine vision solution, and carry out efficient, automated picking with a robotic grip handling between 25 and 30 packages per minute, without damaging bread or packaging. It’s estimated that the new solution has secured a 75% cost saving compared to traditional camera and lighting inspection approaches.
The industrial bakery approached KINE, a Finnish headquartered provider of turnkey robotics solutions for the food and beverage, logistics, semiconductor, and other manufacturing industries. Together with OEM Finland Oy, a Zebra registered industrial automation system integrator and an advanced machine vision specialisation partner, they were tasked with developing a solution that would overcome several challenges.
A manual process was being used to remove and deposit bags of bread loaves and rolls, which was potentially error-prone and less efficient as irregular bread production sizes and shapes made it difficult to determine their location and orientation on the conveyor belt. Transparent plastic packaging also made detection difficult with optical sensors due to low contrast levels and partial reflections.
“We decided to leverage Zebra’s Aurora Design Assistant machine vision software for its versatile, powerful capabilities that provide the robustness and integration needed to visually inspect the variations in packaged bread,” said Kimmo Salonen, Chief Technology Officer, KINE.
The new system consists of a programmable logic controller (PLC), robotic grip, 3D time-of-flight camera and Aurora Design Assistant software, which has eliminated the need for multiple cameras and lighting and reduced contrast and reflection problems.
“Basic implementation of the vision system took about one day,” said Sami Sinisalo, Robotic Specialist, KINE. “Testing, adjusting, and fixing took about 80 hours, including time calibrating the robot. That’s a great turnaround and drastically less than what we'd typically have to do for a new 3D install without powerful and user-friendly software.”
The camera is placed above the conveyor belt, with inspection flowcharts created in Aurora Design Assistant. The camera takes up to 30 frames per second, recording the bread surfaces as a point cloud with over 300,000 XYZ coordinates. The data is sent to Aurora Design Assistant which converts the data into a depth map for analysis, using 2D vision tools to determine grip points for the robot.
“Challenging manufacturing environments with high levels of compliance and wide variations in components and finished products require powerful machine vision systems to deliver needed outcomes,” said Jason MacDonald, Senior Account Manager, Machine Vision EMEA, Zebra Technologies. “Zebra’s high-performing Aurora machine vision software is moving industries forward and overcoming the problems of legacy systems faced by customers and machine builders.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- KINE and OEM Finland Oy were tasked with developing a solution to support an industrial bakery facing several visual inspection and quality control challenges.
- An autonomous machine vision system was created, using Zebra’s Aurora Design Assistant, integrated with a 3D camera and robotic grip.
- The new solution has resulted in lower error rates, higher throughput of goods, and efficient, automated picking. Read the full case study here.
ABOUT ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES
Zebra (NASDAQ: ZBRA) helps organizations monitor, anticipate, and accelerate workflows by empowering their frontline and ensuring that everyone and everything is visible, connected and fully optimized. Our award-winning portfolio spans software to innovations in robotics, machine vision, automation and digital decisioning, all backed by a +50-year legacy in scanning, track-and-trace and mobile computing solutions. With an ecosystem of 10,000 partners across more than 100 countries, Zebra’s customers include over 80% of the Fortune 500. Newsweek recently recognized Zebra as one of America’s Most Loved Workplaces and Greatest Workplaces for Diversity, and we are on Fast Company’s list of the Best Workplaces for Innovators. Learn more at www.zebra.com or sign up for news alerts. Follow Zebra’s Your Edge blog, LinkedIn, X and Facebook, and check out our Story Hub: Zebra Perspectives.
Media Contact:
Daniel Blackman
Zebra Technologies
+44 (0)7408 864 597
Daniel.Blackman@zebra.com
Industry Analyst Contact:
Kasia Fahmy
Zebra Technologies
+1-224-306-8654
k.fahmy@zebra.com
ZEBRA and the stylised Zebra head are trademarks of Zebra Technologies Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2024 Zebra Technologies Corp. and/or its affiliates.
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ZEBRA and the stylized Zebra head are trademarks of Zebra Technologies Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2024 Zebra Technologies Corp. and/or its affiliates.