VISO Research Project

A Visual Inspection System Check is a fast, no-cost way for manufacturers to find out why an existing visual inspection system is missing defects, raising false alarms, or no longer performing the way it did on the day it was installed. With minimal commitment and effort on your side, you get an independent expert read on where the root cause lies and what can be done to improve its performance.

Apply for your Visual Inspection System Check now!

A visual inspection system is a substantial investment: cameras, lighting, lenses, line integration, and in many cases an AI model you cannot see inside. When such a system underperforms, replacing it is rarely the right answer. Our teams diagnose the system you already have sunk capital into: vendor-neutral, and without touching your production line.

 

 

The Visual Inspection System Check in four steps:

Step 1: You describe your system and the problem through our interest form

Step 2: A 30-minute call where we get to know you and your challenges better, then a secure handover of sample images, system outputs, and capture conditions as far as possible.

As there are a limited number of slots available for visual inspection system checks, we will inform you in approximately one month if we will proceed with you to the next steps.

Step 3: A secure handover of sample images, system outputs, and capture conditions as far as possible

Step 4: Diagnosis: we localize the problem in the imaging hardware and physical setup, the AI or rule-based model, the data, or the integration

Step 5: A short-written assessment and a walkthrough call: the likely root cause, what addressing it would involve, and whether it is likely to be worth doing

Is this you?

• Defects reach your customer that the system should have caught.
• False positives stop the line unnecessarily and cost you throughput.
• Performance has degraded since installation, or since parts, materials, lighting, or shift patterns changed.
• Your vendor's system is a black box that you cannot access or retrain.
• You have already invested in the hardware and want to improve it, not replace it.

Why we offer this free of charge

The visual inspection system check is carried out as part of VISO (Visual Inspection System Optimization), a joint research project of Fraunhofer USA Center Mid-Atlantic CMA and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. We are developing a standardized, vendor-neutral methodology for diagnosing and improving visual inspection systems, and your case helps us test that methodology against real production conditions. In return you get an expert assessment at no charge. Generalized, anonymized learnings feed back into the methodology; nothing that identifies you, your products, your site or your vendor is used without your separate written agreement.

We are not a vendor

Neither Fraunhofer USA nor Fraunhofer IPA sells or resells inspection hardware or software, and we maintain no financial relationships that favor specific products.

What the visual inspection system check is not

It is not an implementation: we do not modify, retrain, reconfigure or install anything. It is not a guaranteed diagnosis; some problems cannot be identified without deeper access than a visual inspection system check allows, and where that happens, we will say so. We will not make explicit procurement recommendations and not make an overall evaluation of your vendor’s product. And it is not a commitment by either side to any further work.

Selection Process

While we would like to be able to perform assessments for all interested parties, the number of spots for free visual inspection system checks under the VISO project is limited and there will be a selection process.

Interested in a visual inspection system check for your visual inspection system? Tell us about it through our interest form. Places are limited, and visual inspection system checks are offered only while the VISO project runs.

Apply for your free visual inspection system check now

Tell us what your visual inspection system is getting wrong. We identify where the system is underperforming optics, model, data, or integration. Independent of your system vendor.

Visual Inspection Check Contact Form   The visual inspection system check is free of charge. It is offered to a limited number of companies while the VISO research project runs, through December 2027.

 

Note: The description of services provided here is a non-binding example. We reserve the right to make changes. The visual inspection system check is a rapid assessment made on limited information as part of a research project: it is our professional opinion, not a certification, validation or guarantee of any kind, and it is offered without warranty. Decisions about your production line, your quality processes and your equipment remain yours. Any follow-on work is the subject of a separate quotation. Before you share material with us, please check that you are permitted to do so under your vendor agreements and that it is not export-controlled; we will tell you how to transfer it securely, and confidentiality is governed by the non-disclosure agreement between us.

The VISO research project

Developing a standardized, vendor-neutral methodology for diagnosing and improving visual inspection systems: jointly by Fraunhofer USA CMA and Fraunhofer IPA.

Based in Germany or Europe? The visual inspection system check is offered there by our project partner, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, please visit their visual inspection system check page.