Appearance inspection device, welding system, and method for appearance inspection of a weld

An appearance inspection apparatus for inspecting an appearance of a weld of a workpiece, the appearance inspection apparatus comprising at least:

• a shape measurement unit that is attached to a robot and configured to measure a three-dimensional shape of the weld along a welding line;
• and
• a data processor configured to process sample shape data acquired by the shape measurement unit, wherein
• the data processor includes at least:
• a shape data processor configured to perform at least removal of noise from the sample shape data acquired in advance by the shape measurement unit;
• a first learning data set generator configured to generate a plurality of first learning data sets based on the sample shape data;
• a second learning data set generator configured to generate, based on each of the plurality of first learning data sets, a plurality of second learning data sets, such that at least two of the second learning data sets are generated from each of the plurality of first learning data sets;
• a determination model generator configured to generate multiple types of determination models for determining whether a shape of the weld satisfies a predetermined criterion using the plurality of second learning data sets;
• and
• a first determination unit configured to determine whether the shape of the weld satisfies the predetermined criterion based on the sample shape data processed by the shape data processor and the determination models generated by the determination model generator.