Sharing of Knowledge
The relaunch of the IMVG, Italian Machine Vision Group – which has the target to bring together the knowledge and skills of the many Italian companies working in artificial vision – has definitely started and will have a cornerstone with the Vision Forum, scheduled in June 2019.
Nicola Lo Russo, managing director of Vision and AIdAM representative for IMVG, talks about ideas, goals and practical initiatives of quite an ambitious project.
by Fabrizio Dalle Nogare
What were your goals when you decided to revamp the Italian Machine Vision Group?
The main goal is to create in Italy a group made up of both technology providers and integrators working in vision systems. We believe that Italy is one of the major countries in this sector. Our benchmarks are the EMVA (European Machine Vision Association) and the VDMA, with HQ in Frankfurt, the association that gathers more than 3200 companies and is the main European industrial association.
Personally, the revamp of the IMVG group has been one of the first issues I have faced since joining AIdAM. In this initial stage we are working with a small group of people, and therefore of companies, that we consider technologically important in the Italian scenario. With the aim of widening the Group, we are collaborating with Anie Automazione, an association that gathers several companies working in artificial vision.
What will be the next steps of the IMVG?
Within the Digital District, at the next SPS exhibition in Parma, there will be a conference on artificial vision. At the fair, we will also distribute information brochures about the Group. These will be only the very first steps looking at the Vision Forum that we are organizing, together with Messe Frankfurt Italia, scheduled in June 2019. This is supposed to be the real starting point of the path we are approaching: an event that hopefully will have quite a large participation of professionals from many different sectors. Right now, however, we are particularly interested in starting to work, bringing out ideas and creating a structure that may allows us to highlight the skills that we have in Italy on vision systems, which are indeed one of the enabling technologies of the smart factory.
What was needed, in your opinion, to restart the activity of the IMVG?
Perhaps someone who asked himself: “why not do it?”. Someone who may try to break down the barriers that had previously prevented the project from being revitalized. There are so many Italian companies dealing with artificial vision, often very small ones, which have a great knowledge and remarkable technological skills. So, why not put such a knowledge together, then? Moreover, being part of a Group can also be a way to facilitate access to training – an increasingly important factor in the current scenario – for smaller companies. It is, in fact, what AIdAM is doing through some current initiatives with MIUR and MISE: creating opportunities and debate focused also on favouring work-related learning opportunities.
Are you optimistic about the future of the Group?
Yes, absolutely. We have quite a clear path ahead and the very first steps have been definitely encouraging.