Dynamic OCR inspection with HALCON ensures maximum product quality | RoboticsTomorrow

Attributable to strict compliance rules, packaging for scientific merchandise must be precisely labeled outdated to it is introduced to potentialities. For that reason the Chinese language firm Shenzhen Jiangrun Xuneng Expertise has developed a elaborate machine vision resolution that robotically reads persona codes the usage of OCR. The coronary heart of the utility is the conventional machine vision utility MVTec HALCON. This enables the customer to magnify the efficiency of the inspection processes and enormously give a steal to product quality.

Manufacturing processes in the pharmaceutical alternate are field to severely strict actual rules. In preserving with Lawful Manufacturing Practice (GMP), merchandise must be manufactured to consistently excessive quality requirements. Accordingly, the rules impose strict requirements on the documentation of workflows and the inspection of goods. Traditional tests are intended to be obvious maximum safety and efficacy of the merchandise.

The world health and food firm H&H Group is moreover without extend laid low with GMP: in inform to reliably agree to the rules, the manufacturer must precisely payment the packaging of its scientific and beauty merchandise. For that reason, a variety of recordsdata comparable to batch number, date of invent, and expiration date are printed on the cartons. The persona combinations must be ravishing and complete. Right here is the most engaging methodology to be obvious merchandise would be precisely identified and that quality requirements with regards to labeling are consistently met. It is therefore very essential to test the persona codes in moderation outdated to the cartons leave the factory and are delivered to potentialities.

Inadequate controls led to complaints

Till now, this administration direction of on the H&H Group used to be applied purely manually, which proved to be very costly and time-sharp. Attributable to the excessive option of packages and the mercurial cycle rate, inspection also can customarily simplest be applied on a random foundation. In some conditions, this led to incorrectly labeled merchandise being delivered to wholesalers and a variety of potentialities. Due to this, complaints and grievances piled up, ensuing in monetary losses, customer losses, and serious smash to the firm’s picture.

In inform to give a steal to the usual of product labeling, the inspection direction of had to be made more efficient. To this live, the managers on the H&H Group commissioned Shenzhen Jiangrun Xuneng Expertise to originate an appropriate resolution. The firm specializes in 2D and AI utility frameworks that level of interest totally on 2D and 3D vision solutions, alongside with localization, identification, and dimension of objects. The supplier specializes in a huge option of industries, comparable to food, medication, chemicals, packaging, automotive, and rail transport.

Machine vision platform automates visual inspection

Shenzhen Jiangrun Xuneng Expertise has developed a machine vision platform that enables the visual inspection of product labels on packaging to be fully automated. The letter-number combinations are read and checked the usage of up to the moment optical persona recognition (OCR) applied sciences. “This utility supplied us with well-known challenges. The characters printed on the cartons are usually encrypted, with a variety of forms and sizes of codes mixed. The characters are usually now not positioned exactly where they wants to be, but are offset. As effectively as, the letters and numbers are usually printed incorrectly, unclearly, or blurred on the packaging, which may lead to problems in clearly recognizing the codes,” explains King Wang technical utility engineer at Jiangrun.

One other disaster is the mercurial cycle rate of the inspection workflow. The characters must be read and checked at excessive fling in inform to construct maximum product throughput. This requires entire preprocessing by the OCR algorithms. Right here is the most engaging methodology to reliably safe the respective aim level, guaranteeing the very glorious that it is in all probability you’ll judge of recognition accuracy even with a variety of forms and sizes of characters.

MVTec HALCON ensures genuine identification and localization of characters

Jiangrun’s machine vision platform permits these complex requirements to be addressed with precision. The in vogue-or-garden machine vision utility merchandise MVTec HALCON, which assemble the coronary heart of the resolution, are aged that’s the reason. The HALCON algorithms are aged for pre- and post-processing of the photos as effectively as for the utter identification and localization of characters. The utility must first precisely acknowledge the persona background in the image and safe a horizontal reference line to settle the utter attach of the characters. In the direction of, a jam of interest (ROI) is defined within which the numbers and letters, comparable to an expiration date or batch designation, are identified, read, and checked. By comparing them with reference characters, errors in the labeling would be reliably detected.

Dynamic OCR with excessive stability and fling

“On anecdote of of MVTec HALCON, we were able to enormously shorten the project cycle, reduce the costs for insist, operation, and upkeep of our machine vision platform, and enormously give a steal to the efficiency of implementation. As effectively as, we are able to place into effect dynamic optical persona recognition with excessive stability and processing fling. New forms of merchandise, markings, or fonts can moreover be flexibly added to the utility. This enables us to optimize OCR inspection, conceal a huge option of a variety of persona specifications, and construct genuine outcomes even with show errors or incorrectly positioned characters,” says King Wang.

The live customer moreover advantages from the machine vision platform powered by MVTec HALCON: The H&H Group can automate the total inspection direction of and motivate its workers of late manual work. This improves the efficiency of inspection workflows and maintains the usual of product labels at a consistently excessive level. Due to this, the option of client complaints is reduced to a minimal and the emblem’s picture is enormously enhanced.

Further choices with MVTec HALCON are deliberate

In preserving with the successful collaboration, Jiangrun plans to place into effect extra picture processing choices with MVTec HALCON in the longer term: “Now we enjoy a differ of traditional utility frameworks that exercise HALCON to place into effect machine vision choices. This enables us to model complex picture processing initiatives for our potentialities great more with out agonize and effectively. I’d love to insist the intensive alternate with our MVTec colleagues in China. Their professionalism, technical advice, and training helped us to place into effect the project swiftly,” concludes King Wang.

About MVTec Software program GmbH

MVTec is a number one manufacturer of traditional utility for machine vision. MVTec merchandise are aged in a huge option of industries, comparable to semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, battery production, agriculture and food, as effectively as logistics. They enable choices love surface inspection, optical quality administration, robot steerage, identification, dimension, classification, and more. By providing up to the moment applied sciences comparable to 3D vision, deep discovering out, and embedded vision, utility by MVTec moreover enables recent automation solutions for the Industrial Knowledge superhighway of Things aka Trade 4.0. With areas in Germany, the United States, France, Benelux, Spain, China, Taiwan and South Korea as effectively as a longtime network of world distributors, MVTec is represented in additional than 35 countries worldwide. www.mvtec.com