The Raven Project was created to develop a new, flexible
computer vision architecture that we call the Reconfigurable
Vision Machine (RVM). The five-year project, which began in July
1994, is a joint effort between The Carnegie Mellon Robotics
Institute and Kirin Techno-System Corporation. During the first
two and one-half years of the project the architecture and
philosophy of a modular and reconfigurable vision machine was
developed, implemented and refined. The core hardware elements
of this system were designed, saw several generations of
improvement and have been demonstrated on a working factory
floor. Software tools and libraries have also undergone several
generations of development, and a prototype of the graphical
development tool has been demonstrated. The system that exists
today is a powerful and very flexible platform capable of
performing a wide variety of vision and inspection tasks. Future
plans include completion of the software development tool,
development of new hardware modules, and the