Active visual inspection based on CAD models

This paper is concerned with problems in automated visual inspection of manufactured (particularly machined) components based on their (CAD) design models. In order to achieve the integrated intelligent inspection goals, we address several interrelated problems. These problems include: (i) developing hierarchical representation mechanisms to effectively capture the knowledge about geometric entities, their relationships, sensors, and plans, (ii) reasoning mechanisms to determine the different attributes of the different features of an object to be inspected, and the alternative strategies which can be used for inspection of each attribute, (iii) strategies for automated generation of position and viewing angles of the cameras in an active vision system, and for determining the visible entities in each configuration, and (iv) optimization of the constructed plan including minimizing the number of sensor settings and the total distance traveled by an active visual sensor.