DashCams have been admissible as evidence in traffic accidents in Germany since 2018. DashCams are installed in the car on the dashboard and record the traffic situation continuously in a loop. In the event of an accident, the recording stops after a set time. A video sequence showing the events from a few seconds before to after the accident can often be used to determine who was at fault.

In industry, too, unforeseeable incidents occur time and again, the origin of which must be traced beyond doubt and as quickly as possible in order to ensure reliable production processes through suitable countermeasures. However, sudden machine downtimes, malfunctions during the feeding of products or materials or repeated process errors often cannot be explained in a simple way. In addition, the source of such faults is often located in inaccessible places, which can make it difficult to find the causes.

With the development of the 'Industrial DashCam' (IDC), Imago Technologies is transferring the basic idea of a DashCam in road traffic to industrial applications. It makes it possible to generate high-resolution video recordings that can be played back offline and in slow motion after an error has occurred in order to study details in detail, thereby gaining a precise understanding of the processes and eliminating sources of error on this basis.

The time of recording

It is not unusual for a system to run for days without any problems before errors occur again at any point in time. With its data storage and trigger concept, the industrial DashCam provides the user with a meaningful video sequence of up to 20 seconds in length, regardless of when the fault occurs, without generating unnecessary video recordings. Like DashCams in cars, the camera records continuously and overwrites the memory with new video data again and again. If the industrial DashCam receives an error signal from a connected sensor or a PLC in the system via the integrated trigger input, it can save a video of the 20 seconds before or after this signal or a sequence of, for example, ten seconds before and after the error occurs, depending on the set mode. This allows the user to set the perfect time for video recording depending on the application in order to obtain an optimum basis for fault analysis.

A real-life example: A customer in Sydney inserts package inserts into a packaging box at very high speed - but from time to time they miss their target and end up beside the box. This waste generates costs and reduces efficiency. A slow-motion video from the 'Industrial DashCam' can be used to identify the cause of the error. Thanks to the ejected packaging box, a trigger signal is also available for the video recording. Integrated in this way, the DashCam facilitates troubleshooting within packaging machines - and is available for support worldwide via remote access.

In certain cases, the so-called heartbeat mode can also trigger the recording of a meaningful video sequence. In this case, the system's PLC regularly sends a signal to the DashCam to indicate the error-free status. If this signal is missing, the video recording is also made available for analysis before, during or after the missing signal.

For special applications, the camera offers a further option for starting the recording of video sequences: the optional AutoTrigger mode. It is based on the analysis of recorded images via integrated image processing algorithms, which generate an image recording trigger via software as soon as detected changes reach a defined threshold value.

Clever video compression

The global shutter CMOS sensor of the Industrial DashCam works with a full HD resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels and a frame rate of around 60 full frames per second. A 20-second video therefore generates an enormous volume of data - which cannot be stored within a device measuring just 45 mm × 53 mm × 25 mm. However, as the camera can also be used in inaccessible places in machines, a larger housing was not an option, and this problem is solved with a coprocessor for video coding, which allows video compression directly in the small camera. The compressed videos are then stored internally on a µSD card with 32 Gbytes of data memory and can later be copied and played back using various freeware such as the VLC video player. The camera is powered by a SoC (System on Chip).

High-speed recording

The author: Carsten Strampe is Managing Director at Imago Technologies in Friedberg.

© Imago Technologies

Some industrial plants operate at extremely high speeds, where the standard frame rate of the industrial DashCam may not be sufficient to understand and analyze the very fast movements. It is therefore possible to reduce the video resolution and thus generate high-speed recordings. With a VGA resolution, for example, frame rates of 180 frames per second can be achieved. If the resolution is reduced even further (for example to ¼ VGA resolution), frame rates of up to 370 frames per second are possible.

Other features of the IDC include the IP6X protection class design, the screwable M12 plug-in connections, which are offset by 50 cm to save space, and the 24 V power supply, which is standard in the industry. An integrated lens and quadruple LED lighting as well as the option of setting IDC parameters via a web browser and Ethernet connection also ensure ease of use.