Inspection & Quality Checks

Painted bodies and bumpers must be checked for dirt, nibs, and craters, plus color, film thickness, and gloss.

On the Ariya line, several robots with zebra lighting and cameras inspect the body in about 600 zones; contact-probe robots measure color, thickness, and gloss.

Detects dirt down to 0.3 mm; defects are sent to inspectors' phones for checking and repair.

High-mix boards must be loaded into testers and fixtures, judged pass or fail, and sorted.

A dual-arm robot loads boards into the existing testers and fixtures, judges them by image recognition, and sorts them (2019).

Needs no wiring, so it can be moved to suit the product mix.

Touch panels on panel computers are tested by pressing with a stylus and checking the response.

A UR3 cobot presses the panel with a stylus and checks the response; three months from introduction to operation.

Productivity +31%, post-test staff 2 → 1, payback about one year.

Welded bodies need a visual quality check in the weld shop.

At Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, opened in March 2025, the Spot quadruped inspects visual quality in the weld shop.

Plant-wide, assembly automation is about twice that of existing plants, with AGV parts supply and parking robots.

Checking door locks, seat belts, and headlamp covers and applying badges are manual tasks.

In February 2024, Walker S performed these quality checks and badge application at Nio's F2 plant.

Dongfeng Liuzhou also announced a 20-unit purchase (March 2025); trials are spreading across Chinese auto plants.