The VDMA OPC Machine Vision Initiative, launched in January 2016, released Part 1 of the OPC Machine Vision Companion Specification in 2019, and Part 2 will be released in 2022. As a joint working group, the initiative is organized by VDMA Robotics + Automation and supported by the OPC Foundation.
The core working group that is developing the specification consists of 17 experts from 10 companies. Due to the enormous variations in machine vision systems all over the world, it is very hard to generalize vision system data. Therefore Part 1 focuses on data management methods without restricting the content of the same. Behavior control and observation of a vision system are the key objectives solved in Part 1. The generic state machine approach introduced in Part 1 of the specification enables monitoring and control of system behavior.