Automatic quality inspection in the automotive industry: a hierarchical approach using simulated data

Industry 4.0 is changing the manufacturing paradigms across industries. However, many repetitive processes still rely heavily on human workers, as in the case of the automotive industry, where the final quality inspection of assembled vehicles is still performed using a paper-based conformity list. We instead propose a hybrid solution where a deep learning-based hierarchical autonomous detection system identifies the non-conforming parts and informs the operator via a wearable device, trained exclusively with simulated data. This scalable and cost-effective system achieved a 65.7% accuracy score, which, considering the experimental nature of this work, further confirms the potential of this approach.