Development of an Artificial Vision Inspection System for Real-Time Defect Detection and Classification on Circular Knitting Machines

The present work presents the devising of a new highly automated artificial vision inspection (AVI) tool for real-time defect detection and classification on circular knitting machines. The tool is based on the combination of statistical analysis, Image Processing and an artificial neural network (ANN) approach. The tool (software + hardware) is directly attached to a circular knitting machine and the inspection is performed on-line during other common operations like laser cutting and ironing. The automatic inspection allows the real-time detection and classification of the most frequently occurring types of defects on knitted fabrics, which are significant for purposes of quality control and fabric grading. The reliability of the detection tool, i.e. the ratio between defect detected and effective defects is about 93% . The AVI system has been developed by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Florence (Italy), and the textile research centre Tecnotessile s.r.l. of Prato (Italy).