You’ve gone through initial feasibility testing and decided AI is right for your inspection needs. Now we’re ready to design, test, and deploy your production-level AI system.  

Designing an AI inspection system and integrating this into an existing production process often introduces new challenges that require particular attention. This includes adapting the AI model pipeline to changes in background, lighting or camera field of view, connecting the inspection system output to a PLC, robot or control system, and creating a user interface that provides the factory operator with visibility to inspection status.

FactorySmart® AI was designed to help you to address these challenges.  

Here’s how it works.

PHASE 2. PRODUCTION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEPLOYMENT

At this stage, LMI will work with you to transition your AI pipeline into a deployable and repeatable inspection system.

Selecting vision hardware and validating throughput

Introducing an optical inspection system into an existing production flow requires strict adherence to mechanical and timing constraints specific to your production process. These constraints include how the parts will be presented to the sensor, how often they will appear, and how quickly a decision needs to be made.
LMI will help you meet these constraints by proposing the vision system and processing hardware required and then benchmarking your AI pipeline to ensure your production deployment will be a success.

Optimizing your AI pipeline

Shifting the inspection from the lab to a factory floor may introduce changes to the environment, camera mounting or lighting orientation, wavelength or intensity. To ensure your inspection system is optimized, additional training data will need to be collected and updates made to your AI pipeline.

LMI will make these updates to your AI pipeline remotely and ensure the system is optimized for your installation. Your model will be trained in Google cloud and seamlessly uploaded to your production system.

Developing your custom HMI

A Human Machine Interface (HMI) serves as the central interface to your inspection system––providing you with powerful real-time feedback on inspection results (e.g. charts, graphs, trend reports) and allowing operators to manage and control key parameters. An HMI can also display the health status of various components in the inspection system including throughput, temperature, and uptime.

LMI will design and develop a custom, browser-based HMI according to your exact needs. Like the AI model pipeline itself, the HMI is deployed on a dedicated LMI inspection device. Because the HMI is browser-based, you can monitor the inspection from any device on the inspection network.

Connecting to your factory

Now that the system has been updated to meet the requirements of your production environment and an HMI has been provided to your factory operator for visibility into inspection status, the next step is to connect your FactorySmart AI system to the rest of your factory. This can involve configuring Ethernet communication with a PLC, triggering or providing a pick-point to a robot, or communicating the inspection decision to another control system that activates an actuator to move the part accordingly.

LMI will address your needs by implementing the required communication routines and ensuring FactorySmart AI successfully connects to your factory.

Read part 4 in this AI blog series here, where we discuss the challenges associated with maintaining your AI inspection system for many years to come and what solutions FactorySmart AI offers in that regard.

READ PART 4 NOW >>

In the meantime, if you’re interested in how AI can work for your inspection application you can contact us by filling out the form below, and one of our experts will get in touch!