Illumination for Computer Vision Systems
Spire Starter designed and analyzed custom IR illumination systems as part of Astrolab’s FLEX lunar rover perception capabilities. This project was particularly challenging as the hardware needed space-ready designs and materials while meeting a long list of NASA requirements — all on a profoundly tight timeline.
Fortunately, a prior illumination development project Spire Starter completed for Astrolab, the FLIP lunar rover (scheduled to head to the moon end of 2025/beginning of 2026!), yielded a lot of learnings that shortened the minimum analysis time for FLEX.
FarmWise’s robotic weeding tech seen here also uses a custom, visible illumination system designed by Spire Starter for its machine vision. The outdoor environment required such wildly, exceptionally, crazily bright lights they they remain the most powerful illumination system Erin McDermott ever developed.
For more details about this machine vision system, see DigiKey’s video here, S3: EPISODE 3 Exploring Intelligent Agriculture Solutions.
For Kargo’s computer vision towers, very bright illumination was needed to capture multiple barcodes simultaneously on fast-moving pallets in warehouses. (It’s kinda nuts how fast those dudes drive forklifts.) We developed the field illumination subsystems to play nicely with the specific camera modules used in the array.
We also developed the colorful RGB indicator light at the top to have a nice, uniform lit effect without hot spots or dark areas. It’s a seemingly small detail, but doing it right can have a big impact on perceived competence and attention to detail, as with all aesthetics!
Depending on the available time left in your development cycle, Spire Starter can:
- a.) work on optimizing around frozen parameters in a limited capacity,
- b.) develop a system with off-the-shelf components,
- c.) or design a completely custom optical system to suit your applications.
Book a preliminary consultation with Erin to determine what will work best for your situation!