3D Machine Vision Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Offering, By Application (Quality Assurance, Positioning & Guidance, Measurement, Identification), By Product, By End-use, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030

Report Overview

Global 3D machine vision market size was valued at USD 5.81 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5% from 2023 to 2030. Increasing demand for quality inspection and automation in various industrial verticals is likely to drive the machine vision market. Additionally, need for vision-guided robotic systems across automotive, food & beverage, pharmaceutical & chemical, and packaging segments is expected to fuel market growth. The surge in demand for application-oriented machine vision systems is also boosting the adoption of technology over the forecast period. 3D machine vision (MV) systems involve the ability of a computer to observe, inspect, and scrutinize work performance by employing one or more video cameras, digital signal processing, and analog-to-digital conversion. Captured data is then transferred to a computer to analyze and provide desired output.

Sensitivity and resolution are two important aspects of any machine vision (MV) system. Resolution is responsible for differentiating between objects, whereas sensitivity is the machine's ability to detect objects or weak impulses despite dim lights or invisible wavelengths. These systems play a crucial role in supervising work environments and offer features such as process control, robotic guidance, and automatic inspection in industrial applications. Industrial production and manufacturing activities are becoming increasingly complex, leading to challenges and greater unreliability for the human eye to accurately detect, observe, and examine production activities.
The technology is witnessing high adoption in industrial operations and is significantly replacing manual inspection and measurements due to the increasing need for efficient and reliable inspection and measurements. Machine vision systems utilize smart cameras and image processing to perform measurements and inspections.

The technology is gaining considerable traction across various industrial verticals, including food and packaging, automotive, pharmaceuticals, and others, owing to its abilities, such as improved object detection, enhanced analysis, monitoring tolerance, and accurate component measuring. All these factors are expected to boost the global market's growth over the forecast period. However, the lack of efficient system operators due to inadequate training is a restraining factor that is likely to hinder the smooth growth of the market.

3D Machine Vision Market Trends

Quality control in automation is becoming more crucial and integral as manufacturing companies worldwide expect to enhance their investments toward automation. Furthermore, as companies have experienced an increasing need for automated quality assurance in production processes, demand for automated machines has increased. COVID-19 outbreak has triggered a huge demand thereby resulting in a lower human involvement in the process. As a result, machine vision is getting a wider recognition as an important part of long-term automation development process.

As the manufacturing industry transitions from product standardization to product customization, the importance of 3D machine vision is likely to gain more traction. It is difficult to create a standard machine vision system owing to the vast scope of manufacturing industries and technical specifications vary depending to individual customer needs. Various end-user requirements pose a significant challenge to the market since the manufacturing industry focuses on product customization enabling strong industry growth ahead.

Market Dynamics

The innovative development of computing technologies and image sensing devices is one of the key factors driving the growth of the machine vision market. With the help of technological advancements, 3D machine vision can handle multidimensional invisible information. Machine vision has been prominently used in industrial settings and is now making its way in other sectors as well. The healthcare industry is adopting 3D technology for automation purposes, such as the automation of assembly and packaging of products.

The manufacturing sector is witnessing a transformation with the adoption of automated processes, which has resulted in reduced human errors in manufacturing practices and related activities. As such, 3D machine vision is widely used owing to its operational and safety benefits, preventing mishaps and accidents at production sites that involve complex working environments. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has witnessed an increased adoption in both production and non-manufacturing applications. Manufacturing facilities use AI-based solutions to increase production by maximizing asset usage, reducing downtime, and enhancing machine performance. In addition, AI is anticipated to improve efficiency in the manufacturing sector through quality control, identifying flaws, and assisting with proactive maintenance of factory equipment.

Offering Insights

Hardware held the highest market share of more than 70% share of the global revenue in 2022. Hardware components comprise several objects such as cameras, sensors, processors, frame grabbers, LED lightings, optics, and others. Cameras held the largest share in 2022, which is attributed to increasing demand for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) imaging sensors. This, in turn, is anticipated to result in increasing growth of ‘hardware’ sub-segment.

The market for software is application-specific and fragmented based on the necessity of application. The software segment is expected to witness a steady growth rate over the forecast period on account of training and deep learning of the technology, which is fairly contributing to overall market growth. The offering segment is anticipated to exhibit steady growth over the estimated duration owing to the large market share of the hardware components. The hardware offering is expected to continue growing over the forecast period. In addition, the software sub-segment is also expected to contribute gradually to overall industry growth and help strengthen the market.

Product Insights

PC-based products led the market and accounted for 55.1% share of the global revenue in 2022. The segment is anticipated to continue growing and lead the market in terms of revenue over the estimated duration. However, the smart camera-based systems are projected to exhibit a robust growth rate over the forecast period. The segment is subjected to grow at the fastest CAGR of around 13.8% from 2023 to 2030. This considerable growth of the segment is attributed to growing adoption of cameras in 3D imaging.

3D MV systems consist of numerous cameras. At times, depending upon requirements, these cameras are mounted over assembly lines to observe and examine products and capture data. This is leading to the greater adoption of smart cameras in these systems. Cameras are also capable of reading labels and directing products automatically without any human involvement. Minimized human intervention has led to decreased errors and increased accuracy of inspecting labels and tags. These aspects of smart cameras are influencing adoption of technology across various industrial sectors, thereby fueling up the overall market growth.

End-use Insights

Automotive segment led the market and accounted for 19.3% share of the global revenue in 2022. 3D Machine Vision in automotive industry is extensively used for inspection purposes which include presence-absence checking, error proofing, assembly verification, and final inspection. Besides, the MV system is also used for dimensional gauging, robotic guidance, and testing automation purposes which comes under measure, gauge, and guide applications. Therefore, demand for mechanized imaging is significant across the automobile sector and is anticipated to continue growing steadily over the coming years.

The demand in the food and beverage industry is projected to portray the highest growth rate over the forecast period. The 3D MV systems in the food and beverage industry are prominently used in packaging and bottling operations. Followed by food and beverage end-use industry segment, machine vision systems are likely to witness significant growth in pharmaceuticals and chemicals, printing and labeling, and other industry verticals which include agriculture, rubber and plastic processing, solar paneling, machinery and equipment, and security and surveillance.

Application Insights

Quality Assurance & Inspection led the market and accounted for around 52.2% share of the global revenue in 2022. The systems are extensively used for scanning and identifying labels, barcodes, and texts, especially in the packaging sector. This automates packaging activities, thereby saving time, avoiding human errors, and increasing efficiency. Technology is frequently used in the consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and packaging sectors. The adoption of technology in these sectors has resulted in reduced counterfeit products to a large extent, eventually serving the overall market to gain traction for increased adoption.

Identification using machine imaging is also used in camera surveillance, monitoring traffic, or recognizing number plates for security purposes. The segment is expected to grow at a rapid CAGR from 2023 to 2030 owing to several advantages and opportunities offered to technology worldwide. The quality assurance and inspection segment are projected to expand at a steady CAGR from 2023 to 2030.

Regional Insights

Asia Pacific accounted for the largest revenue share of more than 40% in 2022 and is expected to maintain its lead over the forecast period. This growth can be accredited to the lucrative opportunities in automotive, packaging, pharmaceutical, and other industrial applications in the region. As the region is establishing itself to become a global manufacturing hub, the technology is anticipated to gain significant traction over the forecast period. China and Japan are prominent countries having a potential to offer extensive opportunities for emerging as well as mature technologies such as machine vision. The numerous manufacturing industries are contributing to the growth and prosperity of the region’s overall economic development.

In addition to this, the expenditure and operational benefits coupled with the initiatives being undertaken by the governments of emerging countries, such as South Korea, India, Taiwan, and Singapore, are responsible for catapulting investments and encouraging different industry players to establish their production units in the Asia Pacific region. Furthermore, increasing investments are being carried out in R&D activities to improve machine vision technology and related developments, due to which prominent players are undertaking strategic initiatives such as distribution alliances, partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions. As such, all these factors are expected to propel regional market growth.

Key Companies & Market Share Insights

The ecosystem of the 3D machine vision market comprises an original equipment manufacturer, network of component manufacturers, system integrators, resellers & distributers, and end use. The key players operating in the market include Cognex Corporation (U.S.), Basler AG (Germany), Keyence Corporation (Japan), Sick AG (Germany), and ISRA Vision AG (Germany).
Several key market players are progressively undergoing the development of new products along to capture the escalating market potential. For instance, in March 2021, OMRON Corporation announced the launch of the FH-SMD series 3D vision sensor. The launch aims to mount the sensors on a robot to enable recognition and inspection, space-saving assembly, placement of bulk automotive parts in 3D, and pick & place to implement automation and improve productivity

Recent Developments

• In February 2022, Basler AG extended its 3D range with an industrial-grade stereo vision series. Basler Stereo Cameras enable robots to comprehend their environment in real-time

• In May 2021, HALCON 21.05, the latest upgrade for the machine vision software suite, was released by MVTec Software Gmb. The Generic Form Matching feature that minimizes the number of operators and unifies HALCON's shape matching algorithms into a single set of operators, is a major highlight of the upgrade.

Some of the prominent players in the 3D machine vision market include:

• Cognex Corporation

• Keyence Corporation

• Sick AG

• ISRA Vision AG

• Basler AG

3D Machine Vision Market Report Scope

Global 3D Machine Vision Market Segmentation

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2017 to 2030. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global 3D machine vision market report on the basis of offering, product, application, end-use, and region:

• Offering Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

  • Hardware

  • Software

• Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

  • PC Based

  • Smart Camera Based

• Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

  • Quality Assurance & Inspection

  • Positioning & Guidance

  • Measurement

  • Identification

• End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

  • Automotive

  • Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals

  • Electronics & Semiconductor

  • Pulp & Paper

  • Printing & Labeling

  • Food & Beverage (Packaging and Bottling)

  • Glass & Metal

  • Postal & Logistics

  • Others (Agriculture, Security & Surveillance, Rubber, Plastics, Solar Paneling, Machinery, and Others)

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

  • North America

    • The U.S.

    • Canada

    • Mexico

  • Europe

    • The U.K.

    • Germany

    • France

    • Italy

    • Spain

  • Asia Pacific

    • China

    • Japan

    • India

    • South Korea

    • Singapore

  • South America

    • Brazil

  • The Middle East & Africa