MVTec, BMG and Bosch Rexroth Fold Vision Into the Control Platform

Three German companies have decided that machine vision should stop being a special project and start being an app. MVTec (Munich), BMG (Blaichach), and Bosch Rexroth (Lohr am Main) announced a partnership that combines MVTec's HALCON machine vision software, Bosch Rexroth's Linux-based ctrlX OS, and BMG's Nexeed Integrated Vision application into one deployment path for automation systems.

The practical effect: users can run HALCON-based vision functions directly inside the ctrlX OS ecosystem, next to their other automation applications, instead of bolting a separate vision system onto the line and writing the glue code themselves.

The target audience is specific — machine builders, system integrators, and manufacturers who need quality inspection, component identification, measurement, robot guidance, 3D vision, or deep-learning-based inspection on the factory floor.

What does the partnership actually change?

The three pieces fit together in a defined division of labor. ctrlX OS is the software foundation of Bosch Rexroth's ctrlX CORE control platform and also ships as a hardware-independent solution. HALCON supplies the vision algorithms. Nexeed Integrated Vision, BMG's application, sits in the middle and connects the two.

That middle layer is the story. Nexeed Integrated Vision reduces the programming, interface configuration, and integration effort normally required for vision projects, according to the companies. Integrators spend less time connecting disparate hardware and software platforms and more time optimizing the actual application. Anyone who has watched a two-week vision commissioning spiral into two months knows which part of that trade is the good part.

Marc Bindel, head of Nexeed Automation at Bosch Manufacturing Solutions, put the problem plainly.

"We solve a key problem for system integrators: the time-consuming integration of machine vision into the control environment," Bindel said in the announcement.

Why one platform instead of three?

Carina Heil, group lead business operations automation software at Bosch Rexroth, framed the operating-system side of the argument:

"The strength of ctrlX OS lies in bringing different technologies together easily on a common platform. This creates new opportunities for machine builders and users to enhance their automation flexibly and software-based," Heil said.

Distribution runs through the ctrlX OS Store, where users can pull apps from Bosch Rexroth and third-party providers. That app-store model is the structural change here: vision becomes installable software rather than a procurement line item with its own engineering budget.

Dr. Maximilian Lückenhaus, director of marketing and business development at MVTec Software GmbH, cast the deal in competitiveness terms.

"The collaboration with Bosch Rexroth and BMG is an important step for the automation industry, helping companies digitalize and automate processes profitably, thereby increasing their competitiveness," Lückenhaus said.

Is vision now just another automation function?

The companies say yes, and the partnership reflects a broader industry trend toward treating machine vision as a core automation function rather than a standalone technology. By making vision, AI, control, and automation tools available on a common platform, they aim to accelerate deployments across inspection, identification, measurement, and robot guidance.

For metrology and test engineers, the relevant question is throughput of the integration path, not raw algorithm performance. HALCON's capabilities are unchanged; what changes is who has to wire them into the PLC environment. The answer, if Nexeed Integrated Vision does its job, is nobody.

The open question is adoption.ctrlX OS users get the smoothest path; shops standardized on other control platforms will watch from across the fence. Expect competitors with their own ecosystems to answer with similar bundles.