Small Form Factor Industrial PCs Target Implementers Of Machine Vision, Automation
Cambridge, MA — The Value Engineering Alliance (VEA) announces the availability of the EASY (Embedded Application SYstem), an innovative PC-compatible, industrial computer and machine vision implementation platform which in an exceptionally compact, aluminum-housed package provides all of the core hardware components needed to cost-effectively develop and deploy vision systems in particular as well as other automation solutions that would benefit from unusually small, powerful, embedded PCs.
Developed by VEA member Visics Corporation (Wellesley, MA) and factory floor-tested, EASYs are delivered running Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows® XP Embedded or Linux. They come in configurations ranging from lean Celeron®-powered units to fully loaded Core™ Duo-based versions. Regardless of the processor selected, one can independently dial up or down the amount of RAM (0.5 – 2 GB), Flash Disk (0 – 8 GB), and Rotating media (40-80 GB) with DVI or VGA video display, 4 to 8 USB2.0 ports, an optional 6 port GigE switch with intelligent Power Over Ethernet (POE) on all channels and an optional PLC with 16 opto-isolated, bi-directional, programmable digital I/O pin points. An especially noteworthy feature is the embedded NxN DMA engine which by handling all incoming images as well as display related tasks enables EASYs outfitted with this option to vastly outperform PCs with equivalent processors that are handicapped by having to expend CPU resources on those demanding tasks.
The EASY is ideally suited to serve as 1) the host PC for VEA software equipped Data Matrix decoding and OCR applications that support multiple USB camera-based read stations or 2) the centralized processor in extensive automatic identification architectures composed of networked cameras. By purchasing EASYs with the CHASSIS rapid vision solution development and implementation environment installed and bundled with the appropriate premium performance USB and/or GigE cameras, lighting and optics, OEMs, system integrators and automation engineers employed by end user companies can obtain from a single source all of the components required to in addition to auto ID efficiently and effectively address other common machine vision tasks such as alignment, assembly verification, gauging, grading, Optical Character Verification, sorting, and various types of inspection.
In situations that involve precisely controlled movement of parts, Ethernet motion control is easily accomplished by running the requisite control software on an EASY and communicating with positioning devices of choice via one or more of the EASY's Ethernet ports.
The EASY also simplifies the Human-Machine Interface (HMI). Its abundance of USB ports allows one to be dedicated to I/O associated with the touch-sensitive flat panel displays favored by many suppliers of automation solutions.
About The Value Engineering Alliance
Established in July of 1987, THE VALUE ENGINEERING ALLIANCE specializes in the conceptualization, development, marketing, selling, and implementation of machine vision solutions that lower the overall costs of laboratory and industrial manufacturing operations (analysis, assembly, inspection, test, control, identification, etc.) while achieving equivalent or enhanced levels of system/process performance and reliability.
Renowned as the supplier of application-specific vision software libraries used by several of the vision industry's premier players to enhance their existing offerings or expand into new application arenas, The VEA has been equally successful as a supplier of vision software and systems used in numerous industries by OEMs, system developers/integrators and automation engineers inside end user organizations. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA), the VEA operates worldwide via its extensive network of allied organizations and individuals.
SOURCE: The Value Engineering Alliance