System engineering issues in industrial inspection

The design of industrial inspection systems, requires a broad spectrum of techniques and disciplines. These include electronic engineering (hardware and software design), engineering mathematics, physics (optics and lighting) and mechanical engineering (since industrial vision systems deal with a mainly mechanical world). However, many industrial vision systems continue to be designed from a purely software engineering perspective, without consideration for any of the other system disciplines. While it is acknowledged that the software engineering task in industrial inspection is a critical one, the other system elements are neglected at our peril. No single discipline should be emphasised at the expense of the others. Lately, a number of researchers have argued for the design of vision systems to be firmly placed back into a systems engineering framework. This arises from the belief that an inadequate amount of vision research deals with the genuine design and systems problems involved in the implementation of industrial vision systems. The aim of this paper is to discuss the current state of industrial inspection, as seen from a systems engineering perspective.