Active vision: A promising technology for achieving zero-defect manufacturing

Quality constitutes the cutting-edge of contemporary industry, much more sharpened with the emergence of Industry 4.0. Yet, the assurance of delivering high-quality products remains a challenging problem that requires cautious controls and timely actions through the entire phases of the production cycle. To that end, zero-defect manufacturing (ZDM) has given prominence to a comprehensive methodology that ensures quality control and defects eradication at every phase of the procedure, prioritizing the continuous supervision of each distinctive component to satisfy the corresponding quality assurance standards. Continuous supervision and detection of possible flaws are subjective to exploiting high-tech sensors for high-precision monitoring and assessment. Considering the above, adopting active vision technology can further enhance the promising capabilities of ZDM. The paper highlights the active vision's benefits to the ZDM strategy and introduces a practical framework for applying such technology through the different stages. Innovations and challenges that have to be taken into consideration are also discussed.