Can Machine Vision be used to sort wrenches?

[student design]

I am a Senior undergraduate student who is researching information about machine vision to see if it can be used for my design project. This project consists of automated wrench orientation, that is, sort each wrench in the right direction and side. The wrenches are open end one side, box end the other. They need to be loaded into a magazine which then feeds them into a forging machine, so they all need to be in the same orientation. My question is if machine vision can be used to tell me whether the wrench is in the correct position or not, and maybe do something about it. I do not know what kind of hardware or software is needed. It was just an idea I had, and I wanted to elaborate it and see if it was doable, and the cost est
imate this could have. thanks.

[visionpro]

This is a typical vision application for part location. If the relative orientation & position
between the part and camera is fixed, a standard
2D template matching may be OK. Otherwise, you need
to solve 3D model location from 2D images.

Grab some image processing books from Amazon and
you'll get some ideas about the HW and SW required.

[Julie S]

This can be done with NI's Vision software - pattern matching will be relatively easy for this application. If the pattern is incorrect for a wrench, you can then output a signal to some kind of motion controller (NI offers these as well) which will turn the wrench accordingly.
Take a look at the following NI sites for more information:
Machine Vision Software:
http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/nioc.vp?cid=1301〈=US

Motion Controllers:
http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/nioc.vp?cid=3809〈=US

[crelf]

My book might help: "Image Acquisition and Processing with LabVIEW" - <>