Simon Banks has been working in the Barcode and Vision arena for over 20 years, originally working for some of the industry’s leading manufacturers in Engineering, Sales and Product Development Roles. Since 2012, Simon has helped developed Acrovision into one of the UK’s leading Automatic Identification and Vision Systems Integrators. More recently moving into the world of 3D Vision Systems and Collaborative Robots.

Mike Wilson has over 35 years of experience in the application of automation to manufacturing across a broad range of industry sectors and is widely recognised as one of the leading authorities on the application of industrial robot systems in the UK.

Mike is Managing Director of KUKA UK & Ireland, a leading global supplier of intelligent automation solutions, from robots and cells to fully automated systems. He is also Chairman of the British Automation and Robot Association and has previously been Chairman of the International Federation of Robotics. His book “Implementation of Robot Systems” was published in 2014.

Luca is a Product Manager at Opto Engineering and is responsible for Software products, 360° Optics and AI-based vision units. After graduating with a Masters’ Degree in Physics from University of Padua in 2015, he relocated to Houston (TX) where he worked as an application engineer / technical support for the USA branch of Opto Engineering. He then moved back to Italy and took on his current role in Product Management. He has a strong academic and technical mindset which is combined with firsthand knowledge on the everyday issues and needs of the machine vision industry.

23 years working in Industrial automation across many industries. For the last 15 years as Product Sales Manager at ifm electronic, he has focused on helping customers to achieve their automation goals in a cost effective way. Introducing innovative products to customers and challenging them to think differently. This approach has become particularly relevant as the sophistication of 3D ToF sensors and cameras has increased significantly.

Kai Hartmann is specialized in the fields of embedded systems, AI-based image processing and intelligent cameras. As Product Manager at the camera specialist IDS, he has been responsible for the development of the IDS NXT platform for several years, which enables deep learning-based image processing to be provided as a complete solution. Additional tasks include the management of image sensors as well as internal and external trainings.

Jools Hudson runs the marketing for Gardasoft Vision.  In recent years, Jools has been responsible for marketing, sales, applications and technical support functions for instrumentation and imaging companies including Thorlabs and Carl Zeiss Microscopy.  In her early career, Jools was a hardware engineer for Racal Automation.  Jools gained an MBA from Cranfield University and degree in engineering from University of Surrey. 

Mike has led AutoCoding Systems from its inception in 2005, having spent 5 years as Managing Director of an international coding and labelling company.  Here he gained invaluable experience in the global coding and OEM market place where AutoCoding Systems operates.  Having established successful business relationships with many of the leading coding, inspection and packaging machinery suppliers, he was instrumental in developing a worldwide partnership agreement with SICK AG.   Mike has overseen the continual development of AutoCoding’s packaging line automation solutions and now, working with SICK, their product portfolio has extended into automatic print inspection.

Lee is the founder and CTO of Arducam.  He has been working for 15 years as an electronics engineer and over a decade as an FPGA and vision system specialist.  Lee and Arducam are renowned for inventing the world’s first high-definition SPI camera solution for Arduino in 2012, which has filled the gap created by Arduino’s missing camera interface. Now Lee has led the Arducam team to expand Arducam and ArduChip solutions to an increasing number of mainstreaming hardware platforms like PC, single-board computers like Raspberry pi, Nvidia Jetson Nano, etc.

Steve Kinney is the Director of Engineering for Smart Vision Lights.

He began his career as an Inertial + Radar Navigation Technician in the USAF, after which he worked in R&D and product development positions in California’s Silicon Valley until he joined Pulnix America in 1998, where he was first introduced to the machine vision industry. Subsequent positions at Basler, JAI and CCS, provided Steve with years of expertise in machine vision cameras and lighting.

Steve is an active AIA member, where he has also chaired the AIA’s Camera Link Committee since its inception in 1999. As chair of one of the major standards committees, he is part of the G3’s Future Standards Forum. Steve has also been a major material contributor and instructor for the AIA Certified Vision Professional (CVP)

Cameron Millar is Senior Machine Vision Applications Engineer in the KEYENCE UK & Ireland Technical Team, boasting a wealth of experience in solving challenging camera applications across a diverse range of industries. Since joining the KEYENCE team in 2015, Cameron has played a central role in administering technical training for vision systems and supporting new product launches, including last year’s Multi-Spectrum Lighting release.

Richard is the Sales Manager responsible for the UK and Scandinavia, working for Allied Vision since December 2017.  He has been in the machine vision industry for more than 8 years, previously working for a local distributor in the UK. Richard has extensive knowledge across all component areas of vision systems thereby helping customers and OEM’s to realise complex vision solutions.

Darren has 28 years of automotive quality and engineering experience, working for Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, Volvo and Ford, and latterly for a major tier 1 supplier to the industry.

Now Technical Manager at Munro Vision Systems, he is specialising in installing generic solutions to UK SMEs, taking the cost and complexity out of the Machine Vision Camera Inspection System market and making the technology more accessible to small and medium sized enterprises.

Gaspar is Managing Director of GeT Cameras, a machine vision distribution company known for its excellent quality, service and prices. Gaspar has more than 15 years’ experience in electronic and machine vision system design. With a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering he has designed numerous electronic devices and machine vision systems for many different markets, varying from detecting plastic in rivers up to detecting particles < 20uM in cleanrooms. During his career he switched from engineering to sales, selling industrial camera technology all over Europe. In 2017 Gaspar graduated from the Executive MBA Mannheim, giving him more tools and insights regarding, process optimization, workflows, business models, financials, leadership and strategy. With these tools he understands the customer (business) case better, providing advice and generating strong long-term customer relationships. Also providing huge benefit in strategy and optimization processes of GeT Cameras, resulting in lower end-user prices (30-50% cheaper than competitors).

Tordivel is the company behind Scorpion Vision Software – a machine vision automation framework that was launched in 1998. Today, Scorpion 3D Stinger is one of the world’s most capable automation 3D products and is unique in the way it creates 3D data for robot vision and measurements.

Thor is a 3D Machine Vision expert and will be presenting a paper on 3D robotic guiding.

Torsten Wiesinger is the General Manager of the EMEA region for LUCID Vision Labs, Inc., responsible for developing and growing LUCID’s presence in the EMEA market. Before joining, Torsten has gained over 15 years of experience in the machine vision industry, notably as the CEO at IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH, and more recently as Sales Director at MVTec Software GmbH. Torsten has a Diploma in Business Informatics.

Neousys Technology is an industrial-leading manufacturer and provider of wide-temperature rugged embedded platforms for applications such as automation, intelligent video analytics and machine vision.