u/TimeTheft1769

Looking into building a bin picking machine using either 2D or 3D IRvision

We have a bunch of 2D elsewhere, but I have no experience with 3D.

The parts are all about 4-6 inches in diameter (mostly radially symmetrical), and will be in 30"x30"x20" bins in uniform layers, maybe 10-15 layers deep.

We have used 2D vision's scale factor to determine Z-height of stacked parts before, but only like 2 or 3 parts high. Would that 2.5D style approach using scale be viable for a tote this deep?

We are strongly leaning towards 3D IRvision, but since I'm not personally familiar with it, I'm wondering if anyone here could comment on how difficult it is to set up, maintain, add new part numbers, etc

Any input regarding IRvision or bin picking in general is appreciated!

I do controls at a manufacturing facility, but I often work alongside the maintenance guys and electricians because there's a fair bit of overlap.

I guess a couple of people are out today and I was asked to replace a motor drive on a machine. I figure no big deal let me go take a look.

I walk out to the machine and the disconnect has been LOTO by one of maintenance guys who is absent today. It's a rotary disconnect on a panel front, so the equipment could easily be energized by spinning the linkage rod with the door open and I just know that they're going to ask me to fire it up and get it running today.

So my plan is to unwire and remove the dead drive, install the new one and get it all wired in so that when the LOTO guy comes back, he can just fire it up and go.

What would everyone else do in this situation?

UPDATE: Sent an email to the maintenance supervisor explaining the situation and what I planned to do.

He came right over and popped the lock off. I asked if he was able to get in touch with the guy and he said no. I said you probably should, and he said year we're pretty lax about this stuff, we should be better about it. My brother in christ YOU are the maintenance manager.

Whatever, I'm sending another email explicitly stating that since he removed the lock that he can be the one to power it up.

For the record, this is a small machine with clear lines of sight and overall the risk for personal injury is low, but it's the principle of the thing

Hello everyone, I have been tasked with dealing with the VM where I work.

Some background regarding the use case:

• This VM is used by the automation team and some maintenance staff at a factory
• A master image was created a few years ago, and then a copy (or clone? not sure) was given to each member of the automation team, as well as the maintenance laptop.
• At this point I am the only person left on the automation team, and the VM is overdue for a windows update, as well as some application specific software updates.
• Using VMware Workstation Pro 26H1 currently, but the VM was originally done with version 17

So I think I have a general outline of how I want to do this, but I am out of my depth so I would like a sanity check from someone who knows more than I do (a very low bar)

1. Copy/pasted the original backup of the master image from its storage location, to my laptop's SSD
2. Booted it up and checked to make sure USB stuff connects correctly, programs boot up, etc.
3. Next I think I want to go for the Windows 11 update and then software version updates.
4. After this, I'll rename the updated master image and copy/paste it back to the storage directory
5. Hand out copies (clones?) to the people who use this VM

Should I be cloning instead of copying? Since this is the updated master copy being derived from the original master copy, it seems like a copy would be fine, but then when I go to hand out the new machine to the members of the team, that's when I would want to use the clone feature to avoid matching MAC addresses and network/license conflicts?

Also, lets say I wanted to split the VM in two, like one for robot software and one for camera software, for example. Occasionally both VM's would be running at the same time, so they would absolutely have to be clones, not copies, right?

Hopefully this question isn't too open ended or vague, it's just that at this point I don't even know what I don't know, y'know?