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AssigneeLoughborough University Innovations Limited
InventorsMichael Preston, Timothy King, Liguo Tao, Michael Robert Jackson
Estimating the term…
Method and Apparatus for guiding an operation effector such as a laser cutter to effect an operation along a path on a patterned material using machine vision. The machine vision is used to make a map of a repeat of the pattern, a path is defined on the map by drawing a line on an area image map of the repeat of the pattern, the material and operation effector are moved relatively along the direction of pattern repeat, a line scan camera scans the material during a relative movement between the camera and the patterned material and a scanning image is compared with the map to determine the relative positions of the material and the operation effector, and the operation effector is guided to effect the operation at a position on the material corresponding to the path defined on the map.
A method of guiding an operation effector to effect an operation along a path on a repeatedly longitudinal patterned material using machine vision, in which method:
Apparatus for guiding an operation effector to effect an operation along a path on a patterned material using machine vision, characterized by a machine vision system adapted to make and display a map of a repeat of the pattern, means to define a path on the map by drawing a line on an area image map of the complete pattern repeat, means for relatively moving the operation effector and material in the direction of pattern repeat, the machine vision system being operable to scan the material during the relative movement, comparison means comparing the scanning image with the map to determine the relative positions of the material and the operation effector, and guidance means for the operation effector to effect the operation at a position on the material corresponding to the path define on the map.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.