Audi uses AI to monitor the quality of its spot welds
Autos are designed by robots. A fashionable vehicle factory is a big technological facility, where people today perform in near proximity to robots, but a lot of perform is nonetheless carried out by specialists.
For example, excellent handle of spot welds that maintain vehicle bodies jointly. Audi is searching into automating at the very least aspect of that approach and increasing the excellent handle by employing an Synthetic Intelligence (AI) answer.
Thousands and 1000’s of spot welds go into a fashionable vehicle entire body. For example, even although Audi A6 is not the biggest vehicle out there (even though not a smaller one either) there are all-around d 5,three hundred spot welds becoming a member of its entire body parts jointly. They are applied by robots, but then they need to be inspected for excellent. A lousy spot weld can result in some challenges with the entire body integrity, basic safety, convenience or noise, depending on the area of that spot weld and the severity of the defect. For that reason, Audi uses ultrasound to manually monitor the excellent of resistance spot welding. As checking all of all those welds is virtually unattainable, they use the method of random.
Audi has been conducting a pilot AI challenge to take a look at talents of AI to handle the excellent of spot welds in large-quantity production. In distinct, spot welds in the production of A6 and A7 vehicle entire body manufacturing at the Neckarsulm site have been examined making use of AI. In the potential Audi hopes to appraise near to one hundred % of the established welding details through the entire body manufacturing approach. In the potential, AI-run excellent handle methods will be absolutely built-in into the welding processes. It will be controlled absolutely immediately and will be optimised continuously. Of course, the outcome must be an even lower probability of flaws in mass-created vehicle bodies.
Michael Haeffner, Head of Delivery Management Digitalization for Generation and Logistics at AUDI AG, explained: “As a pilot plant for electronic production and logistics at the Volkswagen Group, our purpose is to take a look at and build electronic options for motor vehicle manufacturing proper by to their use in sequence production. With the use of AI, we are testing an vital key technologies in this article that will make Audi and the area match for the potential.” In the potential AI software in Volkswagen Group vegetation will be massively expanded. For example, AI will be searching for excellent flaws these kinds of as smaller cracks in the vehicle entire body.
Synthetic intelligence is not new in industrial manufacturing. AI is generally made use of to optimise logistics, research for improvements in efficiency, managing the move or supplies, and so forth. AI is especially practical in excellent handle, for the reason that an algorithm can analyse a big amount of money of data really promptly and deliver comprehensible results.
Source: Audi