Busting myths on AI-based visual inspection

Inspekto is delivered with everything you need – it contains a Siemens Industrial PC, a camera, a light and all the required cables. That means there are no extra orders to place, no looking around to see if you have the right connectors. Where to install it? That’s totally open too, because the solution has been conceived for a variety of use cases – from production lines to robots. Multi-camera setups are also possible, for example in complex production cells where several inspections are done at the same time. Inspekto can be fully integrated with PLC or MES/ERP systems, which makes it great for the inspection of incoming goods or the final quality inspection of finished products.

Once you have decided on the use case and the hardware is in place, AI guides you through the training process. The initial step is training the model using a dataset of just 20 good samples, focusing on factors such as quality, form and accurate labelling. Bad samples are optional, not mandatory. Users get instructions via the Inspekto software for every step of the journey. There’s no guesswork, as it tells users which data to add and when. All in all, it usually takes less than a day to get everything going. These time savings are down to the fact that this is not a traditional machine vision solution requiring extensive customisation by experts for each use case.

Virtually every type of material can be inspected, including plastic injection mouldings, metal castings, coatings, mechanical assemblies, surface anomalies, incoming goods, and packaging and labelling. Let’s look at an example of reflective parts, for example a battery cell. The built-in AI automatically adjusts the lighting and comes up with the best possible image – for reflective and non-reflective components alike. That’s in stark contrast to the past when parts were sent to external providers that tested many different combinations of lighting and cameras to achieve the best settings.

For the initial programming with 20 good parts, domain know-how is enough to execute your use case. The system is intuitive, requiring neither a vision expert nor an AI expert. With only a few clicks, you mark the inspection regions on the good samples. The AI can then accurately identify small defects that would otherwise be missed by the human eye. And it does this at high speed – over 100 inspections per minute.

After initial setup, you can easily add further products to inspect. You don’t need to start a new project or consult a machine vision provider. Our flexible approach allows you to easily accommodate changing demands, too. Take the example of a printed circuit board that has undergone some minor adjustments. Staff on the shop floor can quickly make the necessary changes, with fine-tuning as simple as the initial setup. There’s no need for new projects or to send out samples.

Inspekto is a simple solution: implement it once and let it do its job. Factory operators can shift their resources elsewhere, such as focusing on other machines or production levels. Any defects that Inspekto identifies save users time and money, and operations become more efficient altogether.