Dynamic OCR inspection with HALCON ensures maximum product quality | RoboticsTomorrow

Due to the strict compliance regulations, packaging for clinical merchandise may per chance also tranquil be wisely labeled earlier than it is delivered to prospects. For this purpose the Chinese firm Shenzhen Jiangrun Xuneng Technology has developed a fragile machine vision solution that robotically reads personality codes the usage of OCR. The coronary heart of the applying is the favored machine vision software MVTec HALCON. This allows the client to fetch bigger the effectivity of the inspection processes and vastly fortify product quality.

Manufacturing processes in the pharmaceutical industry are subject to in particular strict upright regulations. Constant with Appropriate Manufacturing Follow (GMP), merchandise may per chance also tranquil be manufactured to repeatedly excessive quality requirements. Accordingly, the pointers impose strict requirements on the documentation of workflows and the inspection of products. Frequent assessments are intended to be distinct most safety and efficacy of the merchandise.

The realm smartly being and food firm H&H Community can be without prolong plagued by GMP: in notify to reliably be aware the regulations, the producer must wisely label the packaging of its clinical and cosmetic merchandise. For this purpose, different data corresponding to batch number, date of be pleased, and expiration date are printed on the cartons. The personality combos may per chance also tranquil be upright and entire. Right here is learn the technique to be distinct that merchandise may presumably be wisely identified and that quality requirements with regard to labeling are repeatedly met. It is subsequently fundamental to envision the personality codes fastidiously earlier than the cartons slither away the factory and are delivered to prospects.

Insufficient controls resulted in complaints

Unless now, this administration assignment at the H&H Community used to be performed purely manually, which proved to be very costly and time-ingesting. Due to the the excessive want of functions and the short cycle rate, inspection may per chance also often finest be performed on a random basis. In some cases, this resulted in incorrectly labeled merchandise being delivered to wholesalers and other prospects. Which skill that, complaints and grievances piled up, main to financial losses, buyer losses, and serious pain to the firm’s image.

In notify to fortify the standard of product labeling, the inspection assignment needed to be made extra atmosphere pleasant. To this pause, the managers at the H&H Community commissioned Shenzhen Jiangrun Xuneng Technology to manufacture an acceptable solution. The firm specializes in 2D and AI software frameworks that attention essentially on 2D and 3D vision solutions, including localization, identification, and measurement of objects. The provider specializes in a gargantuan different of industries, corresponding to food, medication, chemical substances, packaging, automotive, and rail transport.

Machine vision platform automates visual inspection

Shenzhen Jiangrun Xuneng Technology has developed a machine vision platform that allows the visual inspection of product labels on packaging to be fully computerized. The letter-number combos are learn and checked the usage of original optical personality recognition (OCR) technologies. “This application equipped us with critical challenges. The characters printed on the cartons are veritably encrypted, with differing kinds and sizes of codes mixed. The characters are veritably no longer located exactly where they’ll also tranquil be, but are offset. As smartly as, the letters and numbers are veritably printed incorrectly, unclearly, or blurred on the packaging, that will lead to problems in clearly recognizing the codes,” explains King Wang technical application engineer at Jiangrun.

One other project is the short cycle rate of the inspection workflow. The characters may per chance also tranquil be learn and checked at excessive roam in notify to fetch most product throughput. This requires comprehensive preprocessing by the OCR algorithms. Right here is learn the technique to reliably receive the respective target level, ensuring the perfect imaginable recognition accuracy even with differing kinds and sizes of characters.

MVTec HALCON ensures right identification and localization of characters

Jiangrun’s machine vision platform enables these advanced requirements to be addressed with precision. The current machine vision software merchandise MVTec HALCON, which produce the coronary heart of the solution, are ancient for this purpose. The HALCON algorithms are ancient for pre- and put up-processing of the photos as smartly as for the right identification and localization of characters. The software must first exactly acknowledge the personality background in the image and receive a horizontal reference line to receive out the right region of the characters. Within the technique, a blueprint of passion (ROI) is defined inner which the numbers and letters, corresponding to an expiration date or batch designation, are identified, learn, and checked. By comparing them with reference characters, errors in the labeling may presumably be reliably detected.

Dynamic OCR with excessive balance and roam

“Due to the MVTec HALCON, we had been ready to vastly shorten the project cycle, sever wait on the expenses for model, operation, and maintenance of our machine vision platform, and vastly fortify the effectivity of implementation. As smartly as, we are ready to implement dynamic optical personality recognition with excessive balance and processing roam. Unique types of merchandise, markings, or fonts will also be flexibly added to the applying. This allows us to optimize OCR inspection, disguise a gargantuan different of different personality specifications, and fetch upright outcomes even with order errors or incorrectly positioned characters,” says King Wang.

The pause buyer also advantages from the machine vision platform powered by MVTec HALCON: The H&H Community can automate the total inspection assignment and encourage its employees of behind handbook work. This improves the effectivity of inspection workflows and maintains the standard of product labels at a repeatedly excessive stage. Which skill that, the necessity of buyer complaints is reduced to a minimal and the logo’s image is vastly enhanced.

Extra functions with MVTec HALCON are planned

Basically based on the a hit collaboration, Jiangrun plans to implement additional image processing functions with MVTec HALCON in the prolonged scuttle: “We bear a unfold of current software frameworks that use HALCON to implement machine vision functions. This allows us to imprint advanced image processing projects for our prospects worthy extra effortlessly and successfully. I could per chance identify on to mention the intensive alternate with our MVTec colleagues in China. Their professionalism, technical advice, and coaching helped us to implement the project mercurial,” concludes King Wang.

About MVTec Tool GmbH

MVTec is a main producer of current software for machine vision. MVTec merchandise are ancient in a gargantuan different of industries, corresponding to semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, battery production, agriculture and food, as smartly as logistics. They enable functions be pleased floor inspection, optical quality administration, robot guidance, identification, measurement, classification, and extra. By providing original technologies corresponding to 3D vision, deep learning, and embedded vision, software by MVTec also enables contemporary automation solutions for the Industrial Data superhighway of Issues aka Commerce 4.0. With areas in Germany, the USA, France, Benelux, Spain, China, Taiwan and South Korea as smartly as an established community of world distributors, MVTec is represented in bigger than 35 countries worldwide. www.mvtec.com