Machine Vision & Imaging Technologies: The Cornerstone of Modern Automation

Automation technologies power almost every sector, enabling firms to meet rising customer expectations, boost throughput, and drive revenue. While the pandemic temporarily slowed market growth, demand for automation—including machine vision and robotics—is set to rise even faster.

Automation Accelerated

Last fall, the World Economic Forum released its Future of Jobs 2020 report, which projects that by 2025 automation will disrupt 85 million jobs across 15 industries and 26 economies. More than 80 % of executives plan to speed up digitization, while 50 % expect to automate additional roles. The report also notes that the “robot revolution” could create 97 million new jobs—especially in AI‑driven and content‑creation sectors where human judgment, communication, and decision‑making remain essential.

The Eyes of the System

Within the automation ecosystem, machine vision and imaging are the most rapidly evolving components. Recent breakthroughs include:

• Multispectral cameras that detect bruises invisible to the human eye in fruit.
• Hyperspectral imaging used to measure fat content in avocados.
• Advanced 3D vision for precise bin‑picking in logistics.
• Time‑of‑Flight sensors that count and dimension boxes in real time.
• Dedicated vision solutions that enable collaborative robots to operate safely alongside humans.

These are only a handful of the advances. Improvements in high‑speed imaging, optics, embedded vision, line‑scan cameras, and sensor technology—such as higher resolution, smaller pixels, faster data rates, wider dynamic range, and lower noise—have expanded the capabilities of machine‑vision systems. Comparing the Vision Week 2021 agenda with that of The Vision Show 2012 illustrates this growth: 2012 highlighted CMOS line‑scan cameras, frame grabbers, 3D scanners, fanless PCs, and FireWire/USB interfaces; 2021 showcased edge deployment, deep learning, hyperspectral imaging, and “4D” vision.

Upward Into the Future

Recent A3 data show that in Q1 2021 robot orders rose 20 % year‑over‑year, driven by sharp increases in metals (+86 %), life sciences and pharmaceuticals (+72 %), food and consumer goods (+32 %), and other non‑automotive sectors (+12 %). Q1 2021 was the second‑best quarter for non‑automotive orders in history, only behind Q4 2020. Although these figures do not isolate machine‑vision sales, robots and imaging technologies are inseparable: vision‑guided robots perform pick‑and‑place, machine tending, assembly, and more, offering greater flexibility and capability than their blind counterparts.

In short, while the machine‑vision and imaging market has faced recent setbacks, its trajectory remains upward. As automation continues to expand across industries, these technologies will play a pivotal role—benefiting manufacturers, service providers, and the workforce alike as we navigate a post‑pandemic economy.

* https://www.weforum.org/press/2020/10/recession-and-automation-changes-our-future-of-work-but-there-are-jobs-coming-report-says-52c5162fce/