Nashville, Tennessee — Nissan says it has improved its paint defect detection rate after investing in advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning designed to detect paint flaws “faster than ever.”
The AUTIS Surface Verification system has allowed Nissan to improve its defect detection rate by nearly seven percent, said the automaker, which uses the AI tech at its Smyrna, Tenn., assembly plant.
The OEM explained that AUTIS uses high-resolution cameras to capture 15,000 pictures of each vehicle immediately after it is painted. The images are then analyzed to detect possible defects.
“The human eye can spot 85 percent to 90 percent of flaws, but AUTIS identifies over 98 percent,” said Travis Fritsche, a paint process engineer at Nissan.
When AUTIS flags a potential blemish, technicians can review the imperfections instantly on monitors and wrist-worn, company-owned smartphones specifically used for the inspection process. This process reduces eye fatigue while increasing the amount of time available to carefully correct the paint, added Nissan.
“Technicians are critical for confirming and categorizing defects. AUTIS is a tool to enhance their work, not replace it,” said Rod Lynch, a new model paint engineer at Nissan.
“AUTIS has significantly reduced our investigation time and elevated our quality,” added Fritsche.
AUTIS was first implemented at Nissan nearly three years ago. The technology has since evaluated more than half-a-million Nissan vehicles at the Smryna Assembly Plant alone. AUTIS is also in use at Nissan’s plants in Canton, Miss., and Aguascalientes, Mexico, covering vehicle models like Altima, Frontier, LEAF, Pathfinder, Rogue, Kicks, Sentra, Versa and Murano.
“[AUTIS] is a self-learning system,” said Lynch. “With feedback from technicians, AUTIS learns to recognize defects like dirt, fibres and crates. It will continue to learn and refine and will build a library of what defects look like.”
