Vision in industry

The final inspection of manufactured goods is a labour intensive activity. The use of human inspectors has a number of potential disadvantages; it can be expensive, the inspection standard applied is subjective and the inspection process can be slow compared with the production process. The use of automatic optical and electronic systems to perform the inspection task is now a growing practice but, in general, such systems have been applied to small components which are accurately presented. Recent advances in vision systems and robot control technology have made possible the installation of an automated paint inspection system at the Austin Rover Group's plant at Cowley, Oxford. The automatic inspection of painted car bodies is a particularly difficult problem, but one which has major benefits. The pass line of the car bodies is ill-determined, the surface to be inspected is of varying surface geometry and only a short time is available to inspect a large surface area. The benefits, however, are due to the consistent standard of inspection which should lead to lower levels of customer complaints and improved process feedback. The Austin Rover Group initiated the development of a system to fulfil this requirement. Three companies collaborated on the project; Austin Rover itself undertook the production line modifications required for body presentation, Sira Ltd developed the inspection cameras and signal processing system and Unimation (Europe) Ltd designed, supplied and programmed the robot system. Sira's development was supported by a grant from the Department of Trade and Industry.

A Robot Based Automatic Paint Inspection System

The increasing use of automated manufacturing processes is directing attention to the urgent requirement for on-line product inspection and the potential application in industry for new forms of optical sensor. This review paper describes the advantages and disadvantages of optical sensors used for product inspection and indicates the hazards to be overcome by the systems designer. The design process is illustrated by reference to a selection of product inspection problems involving the use of laser beam scanning, thermal detection and image analysis, which have been solved recently by the use of optical sensing techniques.© (1983) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Lionel R. Baker

Papers

Optical Sensing In Product Inspection