Page 266 - Concise Encyclopedia of Robotics

Quality Assurance and Control (QA/QC)
Inspectors
Robots can sometimes work as QA/QC engineers. However, they can do
this only for simple inspections, because QA/QC work often requires that
the inspector have a keen sense of judgment.
One simple QA/QC job is checking bottles for height as they move
along an assembly line. A laser/robot combination can pick out bottles
that are not the right height. The principle is shown in the illustration. If
a bottle is too short, both laser beams reach the photodetectors. If a bottle
is too tall, neither laser beam reaches the photodetectors. In either of these
situations, a robot arm/gripper picks the faulty bottle off the line and dis-
cards it. Only when a bottle is within a very narrow range of heights (the
acceptable range) will one laser reach its photodetector while the other
laser is blocked. Then the bottle is allowed to pass.
Photodetectors
Laser

Laser

Bottle

To detection
circuits
Movement along assembly line

Quality assurance and control (QA/QC)

Robotic QA/QC processes are becoming more complex and sophisti-
cated with the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI). But some
QA/QC decisions involve intuition. This sense is common in people, but
engineers question whether any machine can be programmed to have it.

