Paint defect automated seek and repair assembly and method

• US 6,714,831 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2002
• Issued: 03/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ford Motor Company
• Original Assignee: Ford Motor Company
• Inventors: Farquhar, Gary David, Matthews, Thurston Sandy, Bolhouse, Valerie Catherine
• Primary Examiner(s): Picard, Leo
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jarrett, Ryan A.
• Application Number:
  US09/683,612
• Publication Number:
  US 20030139836A1
• Time in Patent Office: 796 Days
• Field of Search: 700/90, 700/95, 700/110, 700/117, 382/141, 356/237.1, 356/237.2
• US Class Current: 700/110
• CPC Class Codes: B05D 5/005 Repairing damaged coatings
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/8806 Specially adapted optical and illumination features

Abstract

A method of detecting and repairing paint defects on a vehicle body (10) is provided, including developing paint defect data using electronic imaging of the vehicle body (S1), referencing said electronic imaging with vehicle CAD data to develop three dimensional paint defect coordinates for each paint defect (S2), storing said paint defect data and said paint defect coordinates referenced to the vehicle body (S3), developing a repair strategy based upon said paint defect data and said paint defect coordinates (S4), and performing an automated repair on the paint defects based upon said repair strategy (S5).

Claims

1. A method of detecting and repairing paint defects on a vehicle body, comprising:

developing paint defect data using electronic imaging of the vehicle body;

referencing said electronic imaging with vehicle CAD data to develop three dimensional paint defect coordinates for each paint defect;

using said vehicle CAD data to determine a vehicle surface normal at each paint defect;

storing said paint defect data and said paint defect coordinates referenced to CAD master coordinates;

developing a repair strategy based upon said paint defect data and said paint defect coordinates; and

performing an automated repair on the paint defects relative to their said vehicle surface normals.

2. A method of detecting and repairing paint defects on a vehicle body as described in claim 1, wherein said electronic imaging includes the use of an optics scanner.

3. A method of detecting and repairing paint defects on a vehicle body as described in claim 1, wherein said storing includes the use of a paint defect database.

4. A method of detecting and repairing paint defects on a vehicle body as described in claim 1, wherein said paint defect data includes the size and location of said paint defects.

5. A method of detecting and repairing paint defects on a vehicle body as described in claim 1, wherein said referencing is accomplished through the use of a vision cell controller.

6. A method of detecting and repairing paint defects on a vehicle body as described in claim 1, further comprising:

generating robot paths for a plurality of automated robots using said repair strategy.

7. A method of detecting and repairing paint defects on a vehicle body as described in claim 6, wherein said performing an automated repair includes programming said plurality of automated robots to approach the vehicle body along a normal vector.

8. A method of detecting and repairing paint defects on a vehicle body as described in claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing force feedback to adjust said automated repair.