Robotic self programming visual inspection

A robotic self-learning visual inspection method, comprising:

• providing a robot having one or more arms each adapted for attaching to one or more of a plurality of tools;
• providing a controller configured to instruct the robot to perform the steps of:
• imaging a component using a long-range camera;
• searching images of the component for a fiducial marking to identify a fixture;
• scanning the fixture with a touch probe along (1) a longitudinal direction of the fixture at different transverse positions, and (2) a transverse direction, perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, at different longitudinal positions;
• and
• determining widths of sections of the fixture between scans with the touch probe via a distance sensor;
• generating a computational model of the fixture based on scanning the fixture and determining the widths of sections;
• retrieving data from a database for the fixture;
• identifying one or more features on the fixture based on the computational model and data from the database;
• capturing close-up images using a short-range camera for collecting detailed information of the one or more features on the fixture;
• comparing the data from the database with data from the close-up images;
• and
• determining whether each of the one or more features passes inspection based on predetermined criteria.