MVTec’s MERLIC software enables users to quickly develop and deploy complete machine vision software solutions without the need to write software code. For non-tradtional and more challenging applications, standard tools may not offer sufficient functionality to solve the application. For many software packages this would be the end of the line. MERLIC however, supports the creation of custom tools by tapping into the more comprehensive and flexible capabilities of MVTec’s HALCON machine vision software.
MVTec’s HALCON software supports the creation and use of so-called procedures which are encapsulated sets of operator calls used to improve the readability and modularity of HALCON code and make it easy to reuse common functionalities in other HALCON programs. The standard tools available in MERLIC were all created using HALCON procedures. This means that for customers who own a HALCON development license, custom MERLIC tools can also be created using HALCON procedures. The steps involved are:
1) write a HDevelop program for your tool using HALCON
2) select the HDevelop code and create a procedure with edited input and output parameters
3) import procedure/custom tool into MERLIC and use
The ability to create custom tools for MERLIC combines the advantages of HALCON’s comprehensive and advanced problem solving capabilities with the time-saving development of MERLIC.
The image above (click to enlarge) shows a custom tool developed for MERLIC that inspects the integrity of a square wafer cookie. The inputs to the tool (as defined in the HALCON procedure) are the image and an adjustable thresholding parameter. The outputs of the tool are an area measurement of detected holes, the rectangularity of the wafer, and whether or not the wafer is deemed “ok” or “not ok”.
Another example where a custom tool might be used is if the application requires a camera or sensor that is not supported by MERLIC’s GigEVision, USB3 Vision, or GeniCamTL interfaces. In this case a custom image acquisition tool can be developed by using HALCON’s more comprehensive list of supported interfaces to create an image acquisition procedure that can be imported into MERLIC as a custom tool.