Volkswagen Group Automates Sign Inspection Workflow Using AWS
To automate this process, Volkswagen brand Porsche developed an intelligent Sign Inspection (iSI) solution on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This solution is powered by the Digital Production Platform (DPP), a cloud-based industrial platform built by the Volkswagen Group and AWS to enable the development of scalable use cases across the company and transform its manufacturing and logistics processes. The DPP will also serve as the foundation for the Industrial Cloud—an open platform, community, and marketplace of digital solutions available to the automotive manufacturing industry.
iSI helps workers reduce control task complexity and helps Porsche increase vehicle quality.”
Thomas Reichert
Product owner of artificial intelligence–based computer vision, Porsche
Developing intelligent Sign Inspection on AWS
Volkswagen follows stringent quality control processes to ensure each vehicle label is correct and undamaged. However, plants produce vehicles sold globally, so workers must handle labels written in several languages. To reach its goal of zero label defects, Porsche developed an automated sign inspection solution. “iSI helps workers reduce control task complexity and helps Porsche further increase vehicle quality,” says Thomas Reichert, product owner of artificial intelligence–based computer vision at Porsche.
The iSI solution relies on Volkswagen’s DPP, which advances the use of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to innovate supply chains. The DPP is powered by AWS IoT Core, which enables developers to connect IoT devices to the cloud without the need to provision or manage servers. “We benefit from the DPP Connect team, which provides standardized IoT solutions for our plant floor equipment,” explains Winfried Oberkersch, product owner of artificial intelligence–based computer vision at Porsche. For example, Volkswagen’s Industrial Computer Vision (ICV) Camera Service uses AWS IoT Core to connect cameras in the factory network to the cloud.
Using the iSI Solution during Vehicle Production
Porsche uses iSI to automatically inspect labels on the plant floor with IoT-enabled devices and to perform manual inspections using a mobile app. In the assembly line, automated cameras photograph labels and send them to the cloud for analysis. If an issue is detected, the system notifies an in-line worker, who takes the vehicle to a quality check station for manual inspection.
During manual inspection, workers photograph individual labels using the iSI app. Using Amazon Textract—a fully managed machine learning service that automatically extracts printed text, handwriting, and other data from scanned documents—the iSI app compares text on labels to data stored in Volkswagen’s ICV Inference Service to identify anomalies. The results are translated and displayed to the worker, who can take appropriate action to fix detected errors.
Expanding the Use of the Digital Production Platform
About Volkswagen Group
Benefits of AWS
- Reduces label defects during vehicle production
- Automates sign inspection process
- Translates labels into workers’ languages
AWS Services Used
AWS IoT Core
AWS IoT Core lets you connect IoT devices to the AWS cloud without the need to provision or manage servers. AWS IoT Core can support billions of devices and trillions of messages, and can process and route those messages to AWS endpoints and to other devices reliably and securely.
AWS IoT Greengrass
AWS IoT Greengrass is an Internet of Things (IoT) open source edge runtime and cloud service that helps you build, deploy, and manage device software. Customers use AWS IoT Greengrass for their IoT applications on millions of devices in homes, factories, vehicles, and businesses.
Amazon Textract
Amazon Textract is a machine learning service that automatically extracts text, handwriting and data from scanned documents that goes beyond simple optical character recognition (OCR) to identify, understand, and extract data from forms and tables.
Amazon Aurora
Amazon Aurora is a MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud, that combines the performance and availability of traditional enterprise databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases.