LM3 Technologies

Since 2017, LM3 has committed extensive R&D to our PAQi vision system to address cost constraints that limits the wide-scale use of machine vision in production. Our PAQi with one camera is cost competitive with the standard high-resolution color smart cameras by Keyence, Cognex, Banner Engineering, and the like and is a fraction of the cost of multi-camera systems by those same suppliers. With an onboard Modbus TCP PLC, the system can interface with your production equipment using either digital IO or Industrial Communications including EthernetIP and Modbus TCP. This flexible machine vision platform contains the following standard but configurable features with the ability for customization on request:

• Acquisition and inspection triggering using the digital IO connection on an M12 circular connector or using EthernetIP communications via one of two LAN ports
• Barcode acquisition via a standard or triggered bar code scanner or a camera
• Ability to self-generate serial number for non-labeled parts
• System capable of querying part number being inspected from a SQL database or by manual selection
• Customize camera settings including exposure, brightness, contrast, gain, hue, and focal length (if auto-focus camera used) by part number or sequence step
• Ability to use HDR or WDR to obtain better quality images in difficult environments with poor lighting
• Storage of acquired and analyzed image to a local or remote storage device
• Pictures are named by serial number obtained during part number acquisition
• Acquisition and inspection results reported to station via digital outputs on an M12 circular connector or using EthernetIP communications via one of two LAN ports
• Inspection analysis done using National Instruments’ Vision Builder AI software or Deep Learning AI models
• Results reported to a PLC using industrial communications, printer, SQL Server, and/or flat file

Since 2018, LM3 has been hard at work developing a complete training, evaluation, and serving pipeline for AI based vision inspection. This groundbreaking system provides a means for using the advanced technology to solve inspection applications previously not possible using traditional machine vision at a significantly less overall cost. LM3’s AI based vision inspection solution saves customers time and money by:

1. Reducing scrap
2. Eliminating customer returns and paybacks
3. Reducing or eliminating ineffective human inspectors
4. Reducing the setup time to deploy machine vision inspection
5. Reducing the expertise required to deploy machine vision inspection
6. Using a machine to perform trial and error to configure the vision inspection algorithm and improve it over time. The machine runs 24/7 and only requires electricity to operate while never getting tired.

LM3 made a conscious effort to design and system capable of image acquisition and AI model based inspection on the same hardware and has a truly one of a kind system that cannot be compared.

More recently, LM3 has partnered with QCHero to develop an online training platform for training both classifier and object detection models using cloud-based hardware to speed up the training time. QCHero eliminates the need for expensive in-house hardware for model training and was developed to be user friendly to allow for use by technicians and quality engineers and not just computer scientists.