With rapid development in 5G, AIOT, automotive electronics, and other downstream sectors, the entire supply chain is expected to benefit from this consumer market. As product demand momentum gradually increases, increasing production efficiency and reducing operational costs become the most important issues. In order to meet the needs of customers for various packaging types, Yingwei Technology has been committed to developing highly customized test seats. However, a resulting pain point is the inability to mass-produce and fully automate operations with machines; some tasks still rely on manual execution. In this project, the probe part of the test seat was outsourced in 2021, and under current and future large-scale demands, work hours, costs, supply, and quality are issues Yingwei faces.
The company achieves a defect detection rate of 99.95%, which seems high, but with an average inspector able to inspect 10,000 needles per day, there would still be 5 defective needles. On a test seat that is only 3 cm wide with approximately 1,000 needles, just one defective needle could potentially lead to faulty testing at the customer end. As the current operational mode relies on manual visual inspection, external factors such as fatigue or oversight of personnel, and subjective judgment by inspectors may lead to the outflow of defective products, which necessitates strict quality control of contact components.
We once sought to utilize optical inspections (Rule-based) for controlling the quality of appearances, but the metallic material of the contact components leads to light scattering, background noise interference, background scratches, and material issues that could result in misjudgments. Therefore, we decided to look for AI technology service providers to solve our detection difficulties.
Developments of Dedicated AOI Line Scan Equipment
To meet the needs for inspecting thousands to tens of thousands of probes within our company's IC test seats, traditional surface imaging and individual needle imaging would be too slow to achieve rapid inspection and labor-saving goals. In response, the service provider proposed a trial with an AOI dedicated line scan module solution. Utilizing a width of 6.3mm on the X-axis for reciprocal scanning of all probes on the test seat, the tests allowed for the simultaneous scanning of 8-9 probes, significantly enhancing the future detection efficiency of AOI machines. This project will proceed with the aforementioned innovative Proof of Concept (POC), focusing on the development of the line scanning equipment and performing imaging, learning, and training on both normal and abnormal probes provided by our company, with initial AI model training aimed at preliminary approval.
A Single AI Technology Solution for Measurement/Detection Needs
Unified use of AI DL CNN learning methods, instead of the current Rule-based system which necessitates defining each defect individually, to meet the needs for abrasion measurement and appearance defect detection of malfunctions/foreign objects. When the same machine uses both measurement and detection technologies, not only does it increase costs, but it also affects the detection speed. Hence, the service provider recommends the use of a line scan device for imaging. Its resolution is sufficient for AI to simultaneously determine appearance defects and assess the condition of needle tip abrasion, as detailed below.
This AI detection technology meets both measurement and inspection needs for Yingwei, not only bringing more benefits to future probe testing but also introducing an innovative axis in AI technology.
Change the method of human inspection, enhance work efficiency and product quality!
After combining both hardware (line scan) and software (AI model training) approaches, we successfully ventured into new AOI detection applications. Following the AI implementation POC, including the development and validation of a customized line scan module and an initial AI model, the plan is to officially develop the AOI machine next year and integrate it into the IC test seat production line.
Future Prospects
Probe manufacturers upstream and downstream IC factory users both have needs for the AOI inspection machine; upstream can ensure probe quality before leaving the factory, while downstream users can use this machine to regularly inspect the condition of numerous IC test seats in hand. Given the future demands, the AOI machine is poised to have a significant positive impact on the IC testing industry in the foreseeable future.
「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only. Translation date:2024-12-12」
Although satellite remote sensing images can make all surface objects visible, it still requires a lot of time and manpower to be truly applied to the industry In order to effectively solve the problems that customers face in digesting huge amounts of image data and eliminate technical obstacles for cross-domain users to process satellite remote sensing images, ThinkTron has developed an "AI Analysis Cloud Service Platform for Remote Sensing Big Data" as a new beginning for cross-domain AI applications for spatial information
In recent years, in response to the impact of industrial globalization, Taiwan's agriculture has continued to transition towards technology-based and higher quality, improving the yield and quality of crops by solving problems, such as microclimate impacts and pest and disease control The demand of agriculture on images has expanded endlessly to accurately grasp the growing environment of crops In the early years when UAVs unmanned aerial vehicles were not yet popular, manual field surveys were the most basic but most labor-intensive work With the emergence of UAV drones, aerial photography operations might not be difficult, but the range that can be photographed is limited Furthermore, surveying expertise is required to accurately capture spatial information At this time, the use of satellite remote sensing data may break away from the past imagination of using image data
Taiwan Space Agency TASA ODC data warehouse services
In the past ten years, with the breakthrough of modern satellite remote sensing application technology, Digital Earth has become a new trend in global data collection Countries have developed data cube image storage technology, and the development of smart agriculture has become one of the largest image users Determining planting distribution is the first step in understanding crop yields Free satellite remote sensing images, powerful data warehousing support, and the team's robust image recognition technology are important supports for accelerating agricultural transformation
Using satellite remote sensing image data can accelerate the development of smart agriculture
However, in the past, it was difficult to extract large-area crop distribution through satellite remote sensing images, not to mention the cost If you wanted to use free information, you had to visit all websites of international space agencies, look through the wide variety of satellite specifications, and carefully evaluate the sensor specifications, image resolution, and revisit cycle After finding suitable images, you had to look at them one by one to filter the ones you need Next is downloading dozens of images that are often several hundreds of Megabytes MB each, which might exceed the capacity of your computer
Also, after overcoming image access and preparing data, you must then start to confirm the downloaded image products and which bands you want, because the image you see is not just an image file jpg or png, but rather complex multi-spectral information, attribute fields and coordinate information It takes a lot of effort just to confirm the correct information Facing GIS software packages with complex functions is the start of another trouble The complex image pre-processing process and the inflexible machine learning package greatly reduce the efficiency of analyzing data After finally getting the results of crop identification, you might find that the best time for using map information may have already passed The above-mentioned complex and time-consuming satellite image processing problems are precisely the pain points of the market ThinkTron expanded from traditional machine learning to modern deep learning applications, and developed an "AI Analysis Cloud Service Platform for Remote Sensing Big Data" under the GeoAI framework, breaking through the constraints of details in the spatial information for customers
Differences between the process before and after introducing the AI analysis cloud service platform
ThinkTron said that Taiwan's ODC Open Data Cube system has been completed and began providing services after years of efforts from the Taiwan Space Agency TASA, formally becoming aligned with international trends The powerful warehousing technology allows users to easily capture and use image data of a specific time and spatial range according to their needs The warehouse stores multiple satellite image resources from international space agencies, including the ESA's Sentinel-1 one image every 6 days, Sentinel-2 one image every 6 days, USGS's Landsat-7 one image every 16 days, Landsat-8 one image every 16 days, and the domestic Formosat-2 one image every day and Formosat-5 one image every 2 days
ThinkTron develops satellite image recognition tools based on Python
Breaking free from the limitations of GIS Geographic Information System software packages, ThinkTron integrated GDAL Geospatial Data Abstraction Library based on Python, and considered computing efficiency and parallel processing when developing all tools required for satellite image processing and image recognition modeling, including coordinate system and data format conversion, grid and vector data interaction, and data intra-difference and normalization All of the tools are designed with AI applications in mind, and some commonly used tools are packaged into an open source package under the name TronGisPy to benefit the technical community ThinkTron utilized the team's understanding of satellite remote sensing images and the collected tagged data crop distribution maps to preset the image recognition modeling process, the required training data specifications, and dataset definitions This is imported into the machine learning LightGBM or deep learning CNN framework that was completed in advance, and the entire training process to be performed in the Web GIS interface, providing users with partial flexibility to freely filter images, confirm spatial and temporal ranges, select models, and adjust hyperparameters In addition to the operation of training models, it also provides historical models to output identification results, and finally displays the identification results of crop distribution on the Web GIS map
In fact, agriculture is not the only industry that needs satellite remote sensing applications AI applications of spatial information have also appeared in various fields as companies in different industries aim to enhance their global competitiveness For example, surveying and mapping companies that have a large amount of map data can use the AI analysis cloud service platform to store map data while also accelerating the efficiency of digital mapping Under the severe global climate change and the risk of strong earthquakes, there is a wide variety industrial insurance, agricultural insurance, financial insurance, or disaster insurance are all inseparable from spatial information The use of remote sensing image recognition to understand insurance targets has long been an international trend
AI Analysis Cloud Service Architecture for Remote Sensing Big Data
With the introduction of theAOIAIWith the introduction of the system, we can improve product yield, reduce costs, and from a business perspective, increase customer trust and sales revenue Moreover, AIit has advantages that are difficult to imitate, unlike other equipment that can be bought with money, making it hard for our competitors to catch up with us
Our company's current development
We are committed toIOTsmart manufacturing our systems already include smart materials systems, environmental humidity control systems, anti-miscarriage systems, smart procurement computation systems, smart inventory systems, solder paste management systems, and production management systems We have asked other manufacturers about the possibility ofAIinspectingPCBAsurface defects, each hoping that we would purchase their equipment, but none were effective upon verification After discussing with IT service providers, we defined it asAOIAIa feasible operational model
Tzuhong Technology has invested inAOIAIan inspection plan to checkSMTtext on components, solder joints, polarity, missing partsand usingAIto replace manual learningAOIand define the 'potentially defective' parts, enhancing productivity and reducing misjudgment rates
Industry pain points
Taiwan faces a severe labor shortage, especially those willing to perform visual inspections are few and typically older, increasing the frequency of missed inspections Thus, the most critical bottleneck in the pursuit of high-quality electronics has become post-production inspections Previous consumer products with undetected anomalies were acceptable within a certain ratio However, in the automotive industry today, undetected defects could lead to fatalities hence, the automotive industry has extremely high quality demands To survive in the automotive supply chain, we must address the issue of undetectable anomalies
Moreover, as wages in Taiwan continue to rise, we can only endeavor toAIreplace traditional manpower with technology, otherwise, even if the anomaly leakage problem is resolved, the relatively high labor costs will still prevent competitiveness in this industry
Application technology and explanation
Initially,Figure 1,PCBUpon emerging,Reflowsystem, it will undergoAOIwill undergo inspection, dividing into 'suspected defective' and good products At this point, the 'suspected defective' portion accounts for20manual review for these20parts, further classifying the 'suspected defective' portion into good and defective products With
We aim to leverageAItechnology, to shift from manual re-inspection of these20technology, we aim to replace manual review of 'suspected defective' products withAIand after review, the results still yield 'good' and 'suspected defective' products, but now 'suspected defective' comprises only3thus reducing the workload of Tzuhong's employees from20down to only3In theory, it isAOIIn theory, after inspection, it is further reviewed byAIbut it appears to go throughAOIonly, so we call this technologyA0IAIDetectionFigure 2。
The original AOI inspection process
The operator will place the testPCBboard intoAOIthe inspection equipment, outputtingAOI
information on defective products, then manually re-inspect one by one to determine if they are defective
AOIAI inspection process
The operator will place the testPCBboard intoAOIthe inspection equipment, outputtingAOIinformation on defective products after,
then proceed byAIfirst performingAOIre-assessment of defective products, outputtingAIinformation on defective products afterward,
then manually re-inspect one by one to determine if they are defective
Process differences
By introducing theAOIAIsystem, not only can we enhance the efficiency and yield of visual inspection personnel, we also have this timeAIexperience in system introduction, we will also incorporateAIthe use of big data into Tzuhong's existing smart manufacturing systems, further enhancing the performance of our smart manufacturing systems and reducing the pressure on employees
Difference between pre and post-introduction
Promotion strategy
1 Similar field diffusion allSMTmanufacturers face bottlenecks in inspections leading to shipment delays introducing this system can solve the severe labor shortage issue and enhance shipment speed and quality, allowing self-promotion to customers or through equipment dealers to cater to relevant needs
2 Cross-industry expansion plans negotiate withAOImanufacturers to directly integrateAIthe system intoAOItheir systems, enhancing their market competitiveness
Profit strategy
1 In collaboration withAOImanufacturers, collect licensing fees
2 Direct sales toSMTthe manufacturing industryAIsystems
3 ProvideSMTmanufacturing industryAOIAIsystem subscription model「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only Translation date:2024-12-09」
Have you had your morning coffee yet
Over the past decade, Taiwan has gradually formed a coffee drinking culture With the advancement of AI technology, autonomous coffee roasters can now rely on AI for precise location setting while also cultivating a loyal customer base Let's see how this is done According to the International Coffee Organization ICO, Taiwanese consume approximately 285 billion cups of coffee annually, with the coffee market in Taiwan estimated at 80 billion TWD, growing about 20 each year
In recent years, the 'drinking coffee' culture in Taiwan has become synonymous with popularity, with coffee being the most frequently chosen daily beverage by 65 of the population Coffee enthusiasts, particularly the more avid ones, are willing to pay more for coffee beans that suit their tastes An increasing number of unmanned drink kiosks have also begun to appear in the Taiwanese beverage market
Unmanned coffee beverage shops face difficulties in expanding quickly, primarily due to two major issues one is the appropriateness of customer flow and machine placement locations which still rely on manual analysis the second is penetrating the market of mid to high-end coffee lovers accurately
AI resolves two major challenges for autonomous coffee roasters suitable placement and cultivating a loyal customer base
To tackle these issues and help autonomous coffee roasters quickly break into the market, Raysharp Electronics intends to implement AI for people flow counting analysis and unfamiliar face recognition These technologies aim to calculate the crowd size at potential roaster locations and classify consumers by gender and age for more precise market analysis They also provide multiple choices for the roasting of raw coffee beans, offering a more customized service tailored to the needs and tastes of professional coffee aficionados with a pack of 'high-quality roasted beans'
Since 2018, the rise of unmanned stores has been mainly due to owners wanting to reduce persistently rising rent and personnel costs However, the initial assessment of store locations still requires hourly labor expenses for manual estimation of customer flow, leading to possible miscalculations of both on-site consumers and passerby traffic These inaccuracies may prevent precise real-time analysis of customer flow, or even misguided estimations of operational efficacy after a trial run, thus missing the optimal timing for loss-preventing location retraction
Raysharp Electronics introduces autonomous coffee roasters equipped with AI-based people counting analysis and facial recognition
Raysharp Electronics combines AI people counting analysis and facial recognition with the coffee trend known as 'black gold', addressing the preferences of numerous coffee connoisseurs in Taiwan who enjoy personally selecting coffee beans at bulk stores and frequenting high-quality grinding cafes or chain coffee shops A new concept for the first autonomous coffee roaster offering choices based on the origin, variety, and roasting methods of coffee beans has emerged
AI coffee roasters enhance customer loyalty and materials management efficiency by 20
For the advanced development of autonomous coffee roasters, Raysharp Electronics engineers have equipped the AI NVIDIA development platform on the basis of TCNNFacenet Through AI, tens of thousands of images related to gender and age are used for sample training, allowing even first-time coffee roasting customers to be easily classified using unfamiliar face recognition This gains consumer trust, enhances willingness to use, and allows for recording purchase information and future product recommendations, leading to consumer purchase behavior analysis This information helps owners tailor future material preparation based on consumer preferences for different coffee beans, reducing raw material transportation and storage issues, and improving material management efficiency by 20
Moreover, by placing these autonomous coffee roasters in high-traffic areas, owners can use cameras to capture the crowd and assess whether the machine location has an adequate customer base, quickly analyzing whether to reposition the machines, and more easily targeting the best locations for middle and high-end coffee lovers
The unmanned coffee roaster features a professional roasting mode interface, providing options based on the origin and variety of coffee beans, their roasting methods light, medium, deep, and related temperature, wind speed, and timing settings If improvement needs arise during the process, engineers can adjust firmware parameters and also assist in integration with the owner's ordering system
Staff members briefly describe the operation of the autonomous coffee roaster
'Black Gold' penetrates deeper into coffee shops, science parks, and commercial buildings through AI
This autonomous coffee roaster targets coffee connoisseurs and can be placed in middle to high-end coffee shops to roast more customized coffee beans than those available in bulk stores Upon completing a batch of coffee beans, it immediately provides them to professional technicians within the coffee shops for grinding and manual brewing The remaining roasted beans can also be taken home for brewing and enjoyment It also adds value to coffee shops by better understanding consumer preferences for coffee beans and launching more customer-attracting drink promotions and appropriate inventory management
In addition to coffee shops, the autonomous coffee roaster can also utilize AI-based people counting analysis to precisely set up near scientific parks and commercial buildings, offering high-quality coffee beans for office brewing to internal employees with high coffee consumption needs Furthermore, implementing a physical membership system can initiate coffee bean purchase promotions or periodic payment incentives, thus attracting new clients and cultivating existing customer loyalty and retention
The operation interface of the smart autonomous coffee roaster「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only Translation date:2024-05-19」
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