Machine vision technologies have provided an efficient and effective way to streamline manufacturing processes and improve quality for decades. In today’s industrial landscape, smart manufacturing and data collection and analysis are increasingly key to reducing costs and automating the workflow. More than ever, machine vision is an important way to achieve these objectives and grasping the fundamentals of the technology will help you accelerate the specification, development and deployment of successful inspection and robotic guidance applications. This non-commercial presentation will outline what machine vision does, how it works using both analytical and AI/deep learning tools, and the components critical to system reliability. The discussion will include an overview of the latest trends in this broad industry, and the advanced hardware and software technologies that are further enabling and expanding use cases for machine vision in industrial automation.