Background introduction:

Customer Introduction:

A Japanese industrial camera manufacturer introduced an innovative camera technology for industrial machine vision and outdoor imaging applications, which has led to it becoming a leader in edge-based industrial cameras. To cope with the growing demand for IoT, this camera manufacturer has also also developed leading comprehensive solutions for intelligent logistics, which includes intelligent quality inspection, intelligent warehouse management, automatic handling, intelligent factory management, and overall IoT solutions.

Project Background:

With the rapid development of technology and the increasing popularity of information technology, traditional logistics are transitioning to smart logistics with intelligent architecture, which includes the rationalization of transportation, warehouse automation, standardization of packaging, loading and unloading mechanization, processing, integration of processing and distribution, and information management networking. With high-quality industrial camera products and leading machine vision systems, this industrial camera manufacturer is helping traditional logistics enterprises to transform digitally, launching a series of intelligent logistics solutions such as intelligent warehouse management and robotics systems.

Challenges:

Business Needs/Challenges (User Pain Points):

The customer's existing intelligent logistics solution consists of a separate image acquisition system and an image processing system based on an on-site computing platform. The industrial camera handles the acquisition of image data, and the computing platform handles image data processing. With the massive expansion of the customer’s business, the current logistics solution faces the following challenges:

1. Unable to meet the requirements for space limitations and operating environment conditions.

Computing hardware for logistics and warehouse scenarios often needs to be small and robust, with features like a high-temperature tolerance to function in harsh environments. The original servers had a traditional large 4U form factor, which is inconvenient for deployment in a warehouse environment. Frequent failures would also occur when the temperature exceeded 40°C.

2. Limited computing power that is unable to meet the demands of AI applications.

The customer's original servers were outdated and could not meet the growing demand for data processing. To improve the parallel processing speed of data obtained from multiple data sources and automated inspection accuracy, the customer developed deep learning machine vision appearance inspection software to achieve higher detection accuracy. However, that software required a computing platform equipped with GPU accelerator cards, which the current platform could not support.

3. Reducing TCO.

The customer’s business is growing at a rapid pace and the payback period is typically long. So the customer expectation is to reduce TCO by upgrading the computing platform.

Solution introduction:

A new intelligent logistics computing platform was built using NE5260M5 edge AI servers to save physical space and improve system stability. NE5260M5 is able to provide the necessary computing power to accelerate the speed of data processing and improve online inspection accuracy, enabling a new generation of intelligent logistics solutions.

Detailed Solution

1. Reduce server space by 50% and improve system stability.

The intelligent logistics platform built using NE5260M5 edge servers, with a 2U height and chassis depth of only 430mm, reduces space by more than 50% compared to the existing computing platform. The platform supports wall-mounted deployment, and can withstand ambient temperatures over 40°C to ensure flexible and stable operation in harsh environments such as a logistics warehouse.

2. The computing power is upgraded to improve the operation efficiency of machine vision algorithms.

The NE5260M5 edge server can flexibly meet customer demands in terms of inference applications, such as deep learning algorithm training and the speed of on-site image data processing. It enhances image processing speeds and inspection accuracy of the machine vision system. By providing the necessary AI computing power for the new machine vision appearance inspection software, the intelligent logistics platform is now capable of high-precision inspection based on a small amount of data training of just 100 images of good products and 20 images of defective products. Consequently, training time is greatly reduced, with one training session shortened from hours to minutes.

3. Wide compatibility for adaptability to various business environments.

With an open architecture and wide compatibility with various operating systems, databases, and application middleware, NE5260M5 can be applied to scenarios such as edge cloud platforms, lightweight 5G core networks, edge natural language processing and computer vision. The customer took advantage of the high computing power and high storage scalability of NE5260M5, as well as its ability to support graphics processing accelerator cards to build an intelligent logistics computing platform. It is using NE5260M5 as the core infrastructure of its edge cloud platform solution.

4. Improved operation and maintenance efficiency and reducing TCO.

The NE5260M5 edge AI server has a front I/O design, which is convenient for O&M staff to debug and maintain and improves O&M efficiency. By improving the performance of a single server, the number of computing nodes is significantly reduced and lowers customer procurement costs. Its compact chassis also reduce space requirements, further reducing TCO.

Customer Benefits

With the continuous advancement of e-commerce, the business volume of the logistics industry is continuously increasing, and intelligent logistics solutions based on new technologies such as IoT, machine vision, and warehouse robotics have been widely adopted. By providing intelligent logistics solutions for logistics companies, this Japanese industrial camera manufacturer has applied machine vision systems to warehousing, sorting, inspection, palletizing and depalletizing, which has boosted efficiency and effectiveness of logistics systems and accelerated the digital transformation of logistics companies.

The intelligent logistics computing platform based on the NE5260M5 edge server is equipped with the newest generation Intel Xeon processors and GPU accelerator cards, which increased the system performance by 100% compared to the original computing platform. It also improved business data processing performance such as increasing image processing speeds by more than 20% and increasing template inspection accuracy by 1.5%, helping logistics orders to be efficient and accurate with a fast response time. The customer's TCO was reduced by 15% with overall platform computing power and data processing capabilities that are fully guaranteed to meet the customer's business scale expansion demands.