Building machine vision with standardized behavior and interfaces

Industry 4.0 and IoT concepts are already established in automation, but many machine vision systems are still integrated via proprietary, project-specific interfaces. At the same time, modern vision devices, such as smart cameras and embedded systems with Deep Learning capabilities, are becoming more powerful and widely used. Without standardized communication, however, these systems remain difficult to integrate into production control and higher-level IT environments.

To address this, the VDMA and the OPC Foundation released the companion specification “OPC UA for Machine Vision – Part 1” in 2019. It defines a standardized information model and behavior for machine vision systems to harmonize data flow, control, and configuration. This enables interoperable, information-rich, and secure applications across different vendors and platforms.

This white paper presents a practical case study based on MVTec MERLIC and shows how the OPC UA for Machine Vision companion specification can be implemented and integrated in real systems.

Download now