In-Situ Control of Conformity Using Vision Sensors Embedded on Industrial Robots

To insure the compliance of the machining process, the control of machined parts is a necessity before removing the part from its machining Position. The measurement of the desired dimension is done using a caliper or a micrometer by human operator who decides whether additional manufacturing processes are needed or not to rectify any existing error. In the world of machining these errors are usually resulted from the tool wear, and rectified through tool wear offset nowadays. This old methodology contradicts with the concepts of industry 4.0 where flexible and intelligent production lines are required. For this purpose, a new in-situ conformity control of machined parts using computer vision solutions embedded on industrial robot is proposed. The robot interprets the measurement and takes decisions based on it, either the part is accepted or an additional manufacturing adjustment is needed.