Popularity of AI Machine Vision Solutions Rising Rapidly
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at midas.sohn@nhqv.com. -- Ed.
In the machine vision arena, the trend towards AI adoption is accelerating. Until now, Laon People’s AI machine vision solutions have mainly been applied in the PCB industry. From 2021, however, its technology should see rising use in the automobile, clothing, aircraft, and smart farm domains.
Popularity of AI machine vision solutions rising rapidly
Introduced in the 2000s, machine vision inspection was primarily developed to improve production efficiency in the face of labor cost growth. With the global machine vision market expanding at an annual average of 8.15% in recent years, AI machine vision (machine vision assisted by AI) is now being introduced amid the ongoing advancement of AI and deep-learning technologies.
Enabling vision inspection augmented by AI-based reasoning, AI machine vision solutions allow for both production yield improvements (vs existing rule-based machine vision systems) and the detection of irregular defects. Such systems can even shorten equipment development cycles. Accordingly, application of Laon People’s AI machine vision solutions is on the rise.
Of note, as part of its efforts to introduce AI technology, leading US-based global machine vision company Cognex acquired Swiss AI machine vision firm Vidi Systems in Apr 2017 and Korean AI machine vision player Sualab (for about W230bn) in Oct 2019.
Fields of application broadening
Until now, Laon People’s AI machine vision solutions have mainly been applied in the PCB industry. And, currently, PCB makers are driving the company’s growth via capacity expansions amid a boom in the non-memory industry. PCB-related sales for Laon People are projected to rise from W5.2bn in 2018 to W8.8bn in 2019 to W12.7bn in 2020.
We expect 2021 to mark the first year of full-fledged growth in the adoption of AI machine vision, thanks to client diversification and greater downstream industry demand. In the automotive sector, tests are underway regarding application of the company’s equipment to both finding exterior defects in vehicles and estimating the value of used cars. Meanwhile, in line with the government’s recently active smart farm support policy, the firm’s provision of AI machine vision solutions for analyzing the growth of agricultural products should rise as well. With AI machine vision solutions also becoming increasingly commercialized in the transportation and dental sectors, the AI machine vision solutions industry should enjoy an ongoing gradual uptrend moving ahead. We estimate Laon People’s related 2021F sales at W22.8bn.