Solution

With thousands of products made and delivered every day, sometimes the human errors are inherent.

Metrici was chosen for its AI capabilities and analysis power, being involved in many projects for the company. One of these ones was meant to survey sofas production line and shipping. Metrici is checking each step of the production line watching the flow as workers are placing sofa elements in the shipping box, Metrici making sure everything goes smooth as planned- in fact that all items are placed and mistakes are not made. Simply put, Metrici does a quality control and gives the final go after live video analysis and AI “visual inspection”.

The project was implemented with the help of our strategic partner in industrial applications, Konica Minolta. A real asset for the project was Radu Valean, IT manager at Aramis, which had realy good additions to the way the flow should be and what steps to be checked and also offered feedback on what to improve for the better results. As usual in an industrial environment, besides Metrici renowned accurate recognition, the hardware choice was critical. Although a sofa production unit is somehow clean comparing to other installations, nevertheless the choice for cameras, lenses, server and other components is of a major importance. This is the reason the cameras chosen were Mobotix S74, which are the best match for such complex structures. This setup allows up to four individual modules, but for this project a two channels istallation was chosen to be discretely placed above the production line. As all Mobotix products, S74 is defined by durabilty and reliability, with a working environment that can range from -40 to 65 degrees Celsius. Also, they are IP 66 and IK10 certified. A perfect choice for the hard jobs.

The Metrici neuronal network was trained for recognizing certain elements and items on the line.

Over 10 different furniture products are going to be recognized. For the first one, a two person sofa, a total of 10 classes of objects (components) are to be checked for Metrici to give the go for the boxing and shipping. If any of these elements is missing from the box, an alarm is raised and a production supervisor must check the product.

Technical sheet for each product line

• 2 cameras
• 2 Metrici detection engines
• Dedicated AI training for recognizing over 10+ objects classes (components) for each model
• One server
• 1 Multicontroller with led lights
• 1 sound alarm

Before and during production, fiducial markers are used with different meanings which Metrici detects and know what to do. Each product has one fiducial marker, also there are 10 different fiducial markers for as many operators and another 10 fiducial markers for 10 supervisors.

Beginning of the shift, Metrici detects the product fiducial marker to know what kind of sofa is to be made and what to search for (what elements to identify) as each sofa has different components.
After one product is allegedly complete, an operator shows his fiducial marker for Metrici to give or not the final go for the product. Meanwhile, Metrici followed each individual product on the product line and is scanning for the components to be loaded in the box. At the end of the line, when the operator shows its code, Metrici will tell if that specific product is complete or something is missing from the box.

How the system works

In fact all elements of a product are packed disassembled so Metrici must check multiple boxes at the end of the line to give the go for the product to be shipped. All components must be inside the box to give the green light. As at the end of the line some of them could be hidden by other, so Metrici checks all the production line, along the way and each time a new object is added, Metrici checks it in its internal memory. Several sofas may be on the line in the same time. It tracks each one of them distinctivly and does the checking for each as it goes. At the end of line it will know the status for each one of them.

As arm rests are also packed disassembled, Metrici also makes sure that they are pair, respectively a left side and a right side, not two arm rests of a single side. Also, checks for labels and other components to be in their designated place.

If something is wrong at the operator fiducial code detect, an alarm is raised and an supervisor is called.

Each one has a special fiducial code tag. When scanned by Metrici, it will display on a monitor what elements/ objects are missing from the box.

This is the first such project which will be replicate to all products of the company. Also, for packaging, shipping, inventory etc. All these are based on video analysis and Metrici capabilities of studying images and understanding them.

Same video analysis will be put at work in the logistic centre where the company is serving as a storing and distribution point for their needs and as a local and regional direct delivery point for IKEA suppliers.

Results
It is to be expected a large scale up in the future with more engines to be used. Plus, every other product made here and shipped will follow similar procedures after new training of the Metrici DNN.Similar installation are used in some other Metrici projects, where also the drivers are guided to tuck loading stations using Metrici LED Displays and showing information about which turn to have and where to go. This could be the case in the future at this installation or somewhere else.