ifm mate – The New Operator Assistance System
March 9, 2021
At the digital HANNOVER MESSE 2021, ifm will be presenting the digital operator as-sistance system “ifm mate”. Based on a 2D/3D camera system for hand recognition, the system eliminates the need for cumbersome wrist accessories common to other systems.
The ifm mate assistance system supports workers with manual processes in production or at packaging workstations. Equipped with an optical 2D/3D cam-era, it identifies the operator’s hands and detects, for example, whether the operator has reached inside a box. The recognition of the hand, which is based on powerful deep learning technology, is the key component of the system.
Whether workers are right- or left-handed is just as irrelevant for recognition as the position of the hand. The assistance system consists of a computer with a touch screen, the software and a photoelectric sensor that captures both a 2D video image and a 3D image. Thanks to the hand recognition in the 2D camera image, ifm mate does not require any further accessories such as VR goggles or wrist trackers. This greatly increases operator comfort compared to other guidance systems, resulting in very high acceptance levels among workers.
