Reconfigurable frame-grabber for real-time automated visual inspection (RT-AVI) systems

Abstract

In most of the automated systems for visual inspection tasks, real time requirements constitute an important aspect to have in to account in the design of them. Often, a frame-grabber attached to a computer using MMX-optimised software libraries is not enough to satisfy the above requirements and it is necessary to use expensive specialised hardware and architectures. Reconfigurable hardware gives us the best of both worlds: the flexibility of software and the high performance of customised hardware. In this paper we present a reconfigurable frame-grabber concept to integrate complex real-time processing functions needed for high-speed line inspection applications directly on-board. This allows the efficient hardware-software co-design to achieve high-performance low-cost solutions.