Vision Industry Focussed and Reunited
After three years of abstinence, the machine vision industry recently met again in person at the VISION 2021 exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. The organizers have announced the event attendance at 5,400 visitors at the leading trade fair for image processing with the majority of the visitors coming from Europe. Attendance at the 2018 biennial event was reported at the time as being 11,106 visitors.
The VDMA Machine Vision has reaffirmed the positive mood in the industry during the opening of the event. The order books of the machine vision industry are strong and the demand for components and systems is constantly high. Looking back at 2020, sales in the European machine vision industry fell by four percent compared to 2019. For the current year 2021, the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association expects sales in the European machine vision industry to grow by seven percent again.
According to Mark Williamson, Chairman of the Board of Management of the VDMA Machine Vision department, this was carried over to the mood during VISION 2021. One negative in the sales trend, however, is the persistent shortage of chips around the world: “Camera manufacturers as well as system integrators – there is almost no company that does not suffer from the lack of chips. Although this does not cause the market to decline, it does dampen growth prospects, ”says Mark Williamson. Nevertheless, the VDMA Machine Vision is anticipating renewed growth of seven percent for the coming year.
Participation in VISION was particularly rewarding for Prophesee. On the second day of the fair, the company received the traditional VISION Award from among the four nominees. Prophesee’s event-based vision sensor technology is inspired by the human retina. Combined with AI-based processing, it carries out the recording process of a scene faster and more efficiently than conventional sensors. For co-founder and CEO Luca Verre, winning the VISION Award 2021 is a special honor: “In an industry that has been working with conventional, image-based processing technology for many years, we want to make a new contribution. The great acknowledgment we received by winning the VISION Award 2021 is a great honor and recognition for the hard work.”
For more information: www.messe-stuttgart.de
