Distributed system for online quality control and production process assessment for the automobile industry

The paper describes the distributed control solution for quality assessment developed for the automobile industry with the aim of controlling the production process of valuable mechanical pieces. A suitable control structure and software architecture was developed, which include a quality assessment system, intelligent production process assessment system, and tracking system. These are online fed with inspection data gathered by different nondestructive testing systems: a visual inspection system, optical roughness assessment system and laser measurement system. The system has been successfully installed and is under evaluation at the Renault VI factory in Spain.