Component Mounter Bulk Feeder Recognition by Brightness Contrast
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing component mounters face challenges in efficiently and precisely recognizing the supply state of components in bulk feeders, particularly in distinguishing components from the background and determining their orientation and pickup feasibility.
Innovation Solution
A component mounter equipped with a bulk feeder, a camera, and image processing that utilizes binarization based on brightness thresholds to distinguish component regions from the background, and a state recognition section that analyzes the area and shape of components to determine their orientation, separation, and pickup possibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple components are supplied in bulk state to the supply region, then the productivity of the mounting process is improved, but the precision of image processing for recognizing component supply state deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies color/brightness contrast between components and background by setting the background to a different color (e.g., black) than the components (e.g., white), enabling clear distinction in image data. This allows the image processing section to accurately recognize component positions, orientations, and supply states even when multiple components are supplied in bulk, thereby maintaining measurement precision while supporting high productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary image processing actions including capturing images of the supply region, executing binarization processing to distinguish components from background, and recognizing supply states (orientation, separation, pickup possibility) before the actual mounting operation. This preliminary recognition enables the mounting head to efficiently pick up multiple components simultaneously without compromising accuracy
2Productivity
If the number of components in the supply region is increased, then the productivity is improved, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring component supply state increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual or mechanical inspection methods with an automated optical detection system. A camera captures images of the supply region, and an image processing section automatically analyzes the images to detect component positions, orientations, and supply states. This substitution enables efficient detection of multiple components simultaneously, maintaining detection accuracy even as the number of components in the supply region increases
Solution Approach 2:
By utilizing brightness differences between components and background, the image processing system can automatically distinguish and detect multiple components in the supply region. The binarization processing converts grayscale images to binary images, making it easier to identify component boundaries and characteristics, thereby reducing detection difficulty while supporting high component supply rates
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
A component mounter includes a component supply device equipped with a bulk feeder for supplying multiple components in a bulk state to a supply region for the components, a camera configured to image the supply region, an image processing section configured to execute image processing for distinguishing a region of at least a part of the component from a region of a background in image data acquired through imaging by the camera based on brightness, and a state recognition section configured to recognize a supply state of the component based on at least one of an area and a shape of a component region occupied by at least the part of the component in the image data on which the image processing has been executed.