FLEXIBLE INSPECTION SYSTEM FOR SMALL SERIES PRODUCTION BASED ON IMAGE FUSION

Robert Schmitt, Philipp Jatzkowski, Markus Janssen, Guido Hüttemann

Abstract

In their pursuit for quality, companies in the production sector are confronted with the trend of ‘first time right on time’, thus requiring flexible production infrastructure for small series production. Regarding inspection tasksflexible metrology and highly flexible machine control structures are necessary. The primary goal of the presented project was the improvement, acceleration, and simplification of a machine vision inspection process of transparent free-form parts, such as automotive headlights. These parts have to be inspected for errors such as scratches, fingerprints, and dust. The inspection task is challenging, as common machine vision techniques such as line cameras and bright field or dark field illumination require dedicated setups for each product. The individual images are insufficient for the detection of non-conformances, thus requiring a different approach. The paper presents an approach using industrial standard machine vision and illumination strategies by applying sensor fusion, utilizing a single monochrome high resolution camera at different time intervals with different illumination. The project’s secondary goal was the flexibilisation of the machine’s control system by implementing a multi agent system replacing the existing programmable logic control architecture. The use of multi agent systems offers an innovative approach by splitting the responsibility of the accomplishment of tasks whilerelying on constant interaction among the agents to fulfil the production task.

Keywords

flexible inspection, image fusion, multi agent system

Download

IMEKO-TC14-2013-72.pdf

DOI

-

IMEKO TC

TC14 - Measurement of Geometrical Quantities

Back to the proceedings