Image processing and non-contact measuring and testing technology are now successfully used for quality assurance across all stages of the industrial value chain.

The advantages are obvious: machine vision solutions work quickly and without fatigue, so that results are objective and repeatable. They also have an advantage over human inspectors when measuring absolute values such as length or color and are not afraid of noise or danger. The direct imaging evaluation and visualization of the results also significantly increases interpretability and reduces the risk of misinterpretation. In addition, sensors can look inside many objects, for example by using extended or other spectral ranges, and thus detect structures as well as optical or material properties that would otherwise remain hidden from the human eye.

• In addition to economic considerations, the objectivity gained and the high reproducibility and availability compared to manual inspection are the main arguments in favor of automatic inspection, which is increasingly based on industrial image processing.
• Non-contact multi-sensor architectures support the development and testing of new materials, serve to safeguard and objectify production processes and enable all quality features to be monitored comprehensively and in cycles at an early stage.
• Especially for highly variant tasks and difficult decision-making situations, assistive inspection systems are increasingly being used to support human operators in understanding and acting individually, thus relieving them of the complexity of modern production systems.

At the Fraunhofer Vision stand at Control 2019, the expertise of the Fraunhofer Vision Institutes with regard to the topic of "Objectivizing quality assurance through image processing" will be demonstrated using several exhibits as examples for some fields of application.

Topics and exhibits at the Fraunhofer Vision stand

Numerous other exhibits will present solutions for surface inspection, optical 3D measuring and testing technology as well as for testing below the surface. Many of these systems are inline-capable and can therefore be integrated directly into production. Possible applications can be found in numerous industries, such as automotive and suppliers, aviation, plastics, casting, metal, glass, etc.

The institutes will be presenting the following topics, among others: Inline 3D measurement and tracing of components, 100 percent surface inspection of complex semi-finished products in free fall, Inline detection of particles directly on the component, Fast 3D data acquisition and processing for quality control using optical "3D mirrors", Augmented reality for fast target/actual comparison based on CAD for complex-shaped industrial components, Detection of foreign bodies in materials in quality assurance, Mobile handheld scanner for non-destructive terahertz testing.

Control, Hall 6, Stand 6301