Machine Vision System Editing Environment for a Part Program in Which a Continuous Stream of Image Acquisition Operations Are Performed During a Run Mode

摘要

In a machine vision system editing environment for a part program, a continuous stream of image acquisition operations are performed during a run mode. Previously, a continuous stream of image acquisition operations was achieved by utilizing different programming representations and syntax for programming and grouping image acquisition operations together in the part program. A new common syntax and representations are utilized wherein such continuous image acquisition operations are recorded in the same way as regular operations, with the running of the part program being performed in two stages. First, the portion of the part program that is to have the continuous stream of image acquisition is scanned for image acquisition operations, and the most efficient order for acquiring the images is determined. Second, while the image acquisition process is being performed, the portion of the part program is scanned again, with the image analysis operations then being performed.

主权项

1. A precision machine vision inspection system comprising an imaging portion, a stage for holding one or more workpieces in a field of view (FOV) of the imaging portion, a control portion, a display, and a user interface, wherein the machine vision inspection system further comprises:
a learn mode operable to receive user input to control operations of the machine vision inspection system and record instructions corresponding to the controlled operations in order to create a part program, operable to edit a part program, and operable to execute previously recorded part program instructions according to an edit mode of execution, the learn mode including user interface features comprising:
a user-controllable stream mode instruction element usable to designate a stream mode segment that comprises a segment of a part program that is designated for stream mode execution; andan editable part program representation of part program instructions, comprising image acquisition instruction representations corresponding to image acquisition operations, image analysis instruction representations corresponding to image analysis operations, and a stream mode segment representation; and a run mode operable to execute a previously created part program, the run mode comprising a nonstream mode for executing part program instructions that are not in a stream mode segment, and a stream mode for executing part program instructions that are in a stream mode segment, wherein the learn mode is configured such that:
the editable part program representation represents a first plurality of part program instructions comprising image acquisition and corresponding image analysis instructions in a first order corresponding to an order in which the corresponding controlled operations were performed to create the part program; andthe edit mode of execution executes the part program image acquisition instructions and corresponding image analysis instructions of the first plurality of part program instructions to perform the image acquisition operations and corresponding image analysis operations in a manner that is consistent with the first order, regardless of whether or not the first plurality of part program instructions are included in a stream mode segment; and the run mode is configured such that:
the stream mode executes the first plurality of part program instructions when included in a stream mode segment, according to a second order, the second order comprising:
performing the first plurality of part program image acquisition instructions to perform their corresponding image acquisition operations in a sequential order without dependence on performing the corresponding image analysis operations, and performing the first plurality of part program image analysis instructions to perform their corresponding image analysis operations after their corresponding images are acquired.