Perception

Machine Vision

Machine vision is the engineering discipline of using cameras, optics, structured lighting, and image processing to perform automated inspection, measurement, and guidance in industrial settings. Classical pipelines rely on calibrated setups and deterministic algorithms for tasks such as defect detection, barcode reading, gauging, and part localization for robot guidance, with deep learning increasingly handling variable appearance and defect classification.

Why it matters for physical AI

Factory vision systems set the reliability standard, often above 99.9 percent, that learned open-world perception is measured against, and vision-guided picking remains the entry point for robot arms into production lines.