In recent years an increased interest in 3D vision and metrology applications can be observed. Due to higher performance and cheaper, commodity-oriented hardware platforms, various sensors for fast data acquisition as well as algorithmic progress with regard to fast and automated 3D data processing and evaluation, the development of new applications, not only for classical industrial production but also for other application fields is massively supported.
Here INVIVO makes a significant contribution to innovative 3D-visualisation and 3D volume and surface inspection applications. A concrete problem of everyday life with vehicles handling is taken as application focus: a dedicated, image acquisition and inspection system determines and documents in real time the status of vehicles passing through a short tunnel suitably equipped with multiple high resolution sensors and appropriate lighting. It sets the base for a 3D-visualization and all-sides documentation of the current vehicle status as well as for a half-automated, operator-assisted determination of vehicles damages. Every time the car passes through the tunnel the system can not only document its current status but can also show the differences to the previous one.
Everyday damages of vehicles create significant financial destruction asset to the car owners. Even small, every day damages in vehicles like, rented cars, light trucks for transportation of goods by parcel services (e.g. DHL or TNT)
and public transport busses, represent multi-million losses due to the high volume circulated. Moreover a higher quality monitoring of the current car status during service stops in dealer’s workshops supports a more professional operation, less customer complaints and increases the positive user experience. A more cautious and fair treatment of the vehicles and their damages would offer an improved business relationship between the various players in this large market. First experiences with pilot systems with objective default documentation and tracking show both a reduction of generated costs as well as a potentially better customer acceptance of damage regulation due to objective facts. Since several years, the market is asking for a solution for the problem without a satisfactory answer.
The main objective of this project proposal is the development of a new inspection and visualization system of vehicles in motion which is based on optical 3D metrology and embedded vision in order to realize an innovative fleet monitoring and car rental return management. For this purpose relevant application cases are selected, which cover a broad spectrum of requirements for an objective tracking of time, place and extent of vehicle defaults. The developed technologies could also be used in further markets needing 3D- treatment like e.g. selling of new or used cars.
The main research priorities are the development of a 3D smart sensor for optical metrology, the implementation of a prototype system/demonstrator including intelligent lighting for scanning whole cars and advanced 3D data processing for visualisation and surface inspection. To achieve an easy usability of the complete setup a GUI with cloud interface, where the inspection data and user input will be stored, will be implemented.
The benefits of a cloud platform for INVIVO users are:
- High application reliability in terms of data integrity and availability.
- Facilitation of complex business requirements such as multiple-site inspections, e.g. when a vehicle is returned to a different location to the one it was originally picked up from.
- Support for supervised learning approaches towards automatic high-accuracy defect detection by applying deep learning methods to the inspection results and user feedback data sets collected from all the INVIVO installations