Automated optical inspection (AOI) is a system that is able to visually inspect products to see if they are perfect or faulty. AOI systems are used on a variety of products, such as car parts, food and labels. The most intensive automated optical inspection system is used in the printed circuit board (PCB) industry, because of the variety of small problems that can compromise a PCB’s effectiveness. An AOI program uses a combination of light and either a scanner or camera to capture information about the product, and then compares it either to a master or to digital data. While this is much faster than manually inspecting a product, industries that create products with much variation may not find AOI very useful, because this system can only handle similar products.
In the past, when a product was made, employees were hired to look at the product. They would manually search for defects and ensure all the parts were placed correctly on the product. While effective at the time, manual inspection is much slower and less accurate than automated optical inspection. This is because the AOI system, unlike human inspectors, will not get eyestrain or accidentally forget where a part is supposed to go.
