Image credit: iStock / Vanit Janthra
December 2025 – NEXCOM International and Stereolabs have entered a new partnership combining Stereolabs’ ZED X series depth cameras and the ZED SDK 5.1 with NEXCOM’s ATC-series edge AI computers. It is a collaboration that reflects a wider transformation underway in machine vision. The shift from controlled production lines to unstructured, real-world environments is accelerating and the demands on vision systems are changing as a result.
Machine vision has always excelled at accuracy, speed, and repeatability in well-lit, predictable factory settings. Yet as we have covered previously at MVPro, from emerging mobile robots to vision-enabled healthcare devices and neuromorphic research, the edge itself is becoming the new frontier. Logistics vehicles, autonomous platforms, public transit systems, warehouse robotics, and mobile inspection units all need visual intelligence that works outside the four walls of a factory. This partnership represents that shift in a very concrete way.
The ZED X cameras are built for outdoor and dynamic conditions. They capture stereo depth and motion with high stability even when lighting changes or surfaces reflect unpredictably. With the updated SDK, Stereolabs has reduced compute load while boosting depth quality, giving developers more freedom to run additional AI models or perception layers without needing server-grade hardware.
NEXCOM’s contribution is equally important. Their ATC-series computers are designed for edge deployment where space, power, vibration, and temperature constraints create real technical pressure. This class of hardware is already used in automated vehicles, industrial machinery, rail systems, and safety-critical applications. By pairing it with a depth camera and software stack that can deliver reliable performance outside controlled environments, integrators gain a ready-made platform that answers many of the challenges we have discussed in recent MVPro articles and interviews: deployment friction, environmental robustness, lifecycle reliability, and the need for validated AI hardware-software combinations.
This is also a sign of where the machine vision market is heading. Integrators and automation teams want solutions, not parts. In the past twelve months we have written about the growing importance of ecosystems: evident in product strategies from Cognex, Zebra, Lucid, and others. Partnerships like NEXCOM and Stereolabs reinforce that momentum. The value is no longer only in the sensor, or only in the camera, or only in the AI model. The value comes from combining them into a platform that delivers dependable perception without requiring specialised integration each time.
The industries targeted by this collaboration reflect that trend. Mobile robotics is expanding faster than fixed automation. Public transit is adopting onboard vision for safety and situational awareness. Smart infrastructure is using depth sensing to manage people flow and optimise service delivery. Warehouses increasingly operate with hybrid environments where people, robots, and vehicles work in shared spaces. All of these require real-time perception delivered at the edge. Latency, power consumption, and ruggedness matter just as much as pixel count or model accuracy.
For Stereolabs, the partnership provides a route into markets where machine builders and robotics companies need industrial-grade assurance. For NEXCOM, it brings a depth camera ecosystem with AI-ready processing into their established lineup of edge compute modules. For system integrators, it removes friction from projects that would otherwise require separate sourcing, qualification, thermal testing, and software integration.
Most importantly, it reinforces a message we have highlighted repeatedly at MVPro. Machine vision is not just expanding, it is shifting outward. The next generation of vision systems will not only inspect but also navigate, avoid, decide, and interact. They will act as the sensory layer for machines that move through the world, not just factories. As requirements grow for perception that is real-time, resilient, and situationally aware, collaborations like this show how hardware and software vendors are preparing for that future.
This partnership is more than a product alignment. It is a signal of where the industry is heading: toward vision systems that understand and respond to their environment in real time, in any environment, and in any industry that needs machines to see clearly.
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