Automatic visual inspection in industry

The fact that you are reading this article indicates that you have optical sensors (eyes). Pick up a pencil from your desk. You will almost certainly locate it visually, guiding your hand towards it by employing visual feedback. Is the tip of the pencil broken? Again, you will probably use optical rather than, say tactile or functional‐testing methods. Over the aeons of our evolutionary history, nature has found that remote sensing by vision is a most valuable facility. It is fast, safer than tactile sensing and can operate over considerable distances. It seems eminently sensible to consider whether these lessons that we learn from nature can be applied in the workshop.