MVTec Software, Bosch Rexroth and Bosch Manufacturing Solutions (BMG) are teaming up to bring machine vision into ctrlX OS-based automation. As part of the deal, MVTec and BMG become ctrlX World partners. The goal is simple: machine builders and integrators should be able to run HALCON vision procedures on the same platform as the rest of their control software.
Three partners, three roles
Each company contributes a separate layer of the solution. First, MVTec supplies HALCON, its standard machine vision library. Second, BMG provides Nexeed Integrated Vision, an app that executes HALCON procedures on ctrlX OS. Finally, Bosch Rexroth contributes ctrlX OS itself, together with the partner ecosystem around it.
ctrlX OS is a Linux-based operating system. It runs on the ctrlX CORE controller platform, but Bosch Rexroth also offers it as a hardware-independent solution. In addition, users can install apps from Bosch Rexroth and third-party vendors through the ctrlX OS Store.
How Nexeed Integrated Vision works
Nexeed Integrated Vision acts as the technical bridge between three worlds: MVTec’s vision software, the ctrlX OS environment and the machine control. Thanks to this link, tasks such as quality inspection or component identification can run next to other automation functions on one platform. Moreover, the app shares resources and interfaces with the rest of the system. This keeps the architecture lean and the implementation process-oriented.
According to Marc Bindel, Head of Nexeed Automation at BMG, the app targets a well-known pain point for system integrators: connecting machine vision to the control environment. With HALCON procedures available directly on ctrlX OS and a defined connection to the control, he says the partners “drastically reduce the programming effort”. Integrators can therefore spend their time on the application instead of on platform and interface setup.
What HALCON brings to the platform
HALCON covers a broad range of vision tasks. Typical uses include:
- Quality inspection and defect detection
- Component identification and code reading
- Measurement
- Robot guidance
Beyond classic rule-based methods, the library also includes 3D vision and deep learning technologies. As a result, ctrlX OS users get access to the same toolset that MVTec offers on PC and embedded platforms.
Why it matters for engineers
Vision has often lived on a separate industrial PC, with its own software stack and a fieldbus or TCP link to the PLC. That split adds hardware, engineering hours and maintenance work. An app-based approach changes the picture. Vision becomes one more function inside the control ecosystem, deployed and maintained with the same tools as motion or logic.
Bosch Rexroth sees this as the core strength of ctrlX OS: different technologies combined on one common platform. The MVTec partnership also follows other vision moves in the ecosystem, such as evopro’s software-defined camera for ctrlX OS. For machine builders, the result is a more modular, software-based path to adding vision to new and existing machines.
Partners and further information
The collaboration targets machine builders, automation manufacturers, system integrators and manufacturing companies. Further details are available in the official MVTec announcement. For related news, browse our MVTec section and the latest Bosch Rexroth news.