System and method for combined automatic and manual inspection
AssigneeATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc.
InventorsSteven Donald WARDELL, Daniel Blair DE VERTEUIL
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for inspecting a part in a manufacturing environment, the method including: acquiring at least one image of the part; optionally enhancing the at least one image; automatically analyzing the enhanced image to determine if the part has a potential defect; if it is determined that there is a potential defect: displaying the at least one image to an operator; and receiving operator input of a part status, wherein the part status may be defect or no defect; and storing the part status in association with the at least one image. The automatic analysis may include a confidence level and only images having a confidence level that does not meet a threshold will be displayed to an operator.
Claims20
A method for inspecting a part in a manufacturing environment, the method comprising:
- acquiring at least one image of the part;
- enhancing the at least one image;
- analyzing the enhanced image to determine if the part has a potential defect;
- if it is determined that there is a potential defect:
- displaying the at least one image to an operator;
- and
- receiving operator input of a part status, wherein the part status may be defect or no defect;
- and
- storing the part status in association with the at least one image.
A system for inspecting a part in a manufacturing environment, the system comprising:
- image equipment for acquiring at least one image of the part;
- an input/output system for selectively displaying the at least one image to an operator and for receiving operator input;
- a storage module for storing the at least one image and data related to the at least one image and the operator;
- and
- a processor for:
- analyzing the at least one image received by the image equipment to determine if the part has a potential defect and, if it is determined that there is a potential defect, setting a part status to defect and selectively displaying the at least one image to the operator via the input/output system;
- if the processor selectively displays the at least one image to the operator, receiving operator input of a part status, wherein the part status may be defect or no defect;
- and if the operator input is no defect, setting the part status to no defect;
- and
- storing the part status in association with the at least one image and data related to the operator in the database.
A method of combined automatic and manual inspection of a part comprising:
- obtaining at least one image of the part to be inspected;
- automatically analyzing the at least one image to determine an automatic status result;
- displaying the at least one image to an operator to determine a manual status result;
- and
- determining a status of the part based on at least one of the automatic status result and the manual status result.
A method of training quality control operators, the method comprising:
- storing images of a plurality of parts having varying quality in association with experienced quality control results from a hybrid system including both automated results and experienced operators;
- displaying the images to a new quality control operator and receiving input of new quality control results from the new quality control operator;
- and
- comparing the new quality control results to the experienced quality control results and displaying the comparison to the new quality control operator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.