MERLIC 5.4 is pursuing the clear goal of providing the growing market of new machine vision users with easy-to-use software featuring the latest technologies. Achieving this goal means the software must also integrate easily into the process environment.
What's changing?
In version 5.4, the new feature set focuses mostly on easier process integration. Thanks to newly developed plug-ins, MERLIC can now be operated via the popular REST interface as well as controlled by a Schneider Electric Modicon PLC®.
REST plug-in for MERLIC
MERLIC 5.4 extends the available MERLIC Communicator plug-ins with a REST plug-in. This interface opens the door to the world of web services.
MERLIC users benefit from being able to control the software through this important interface, using a frontend on the web browser. Furthermore, the results of the machine vision application can also be displayed in a device-independent manner, for example on mobile devices.
Modicon®* plug-in for MERLIC
A new plugin in MERLIC 5.4 allows users to access the Schneider Electric Modicon PLC ®. This broadens the range of applications that can be easily integrated with MERLIC. For instance, this integration would enable robots and MERLIC to collaborate directly using a Modicon PLC ® that operates on the Modbus protocol.
Acquisition Sequences
MERLIC users regularly have the opportunity to test new developments at an early stage and to contribute to further advancements. In MERLIC 5.4 this is the case with "Acquisition Sequences". This concept feature introduces new possibilities for image acquisition. For instance, when dealing with a poorly lit object, users can now acquire images with both short and long exposure times, which are then merged into a single image. As a result, challenging object characteristics are balanced, resulting in improved visibility of details.
