Takahiro Ichikawa
Joined Musashi AI in 2013
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Department of Information Engineering
The company is trying to automate the visual inspection process using AI.
"Are you interested in AI?" –It was my 5th year in the company when my boss asked me when I was in charge of building an internal network. I answered “Yes” and joined the AI project, which is now known as Musashi AI. I joined Musashi with the expectation that I would be put in charge of various jobs, but the AI exceeded my expectations. At the start of the project, it's unclear what AI will do. The automation of the inspection was decided after repeated discussions among the members. Finding scratches, dents, and burrs in automobile parts by visual inspection is a task that is difficult to judge by a machine and relies on many inspectors. However, there are differences in people’s skills based on their experience, and even the same person can make mistakes due to fatigue and lack of concentration. AI can solve those problems and can conduct inspection for 24 hours a day.
It has already been commercialized and we are now considering the next development.
I learned about AI technology from a venture company specializing in AI that we worked with. Using deep learning technology, computers automatically learn features from data, much like neurons in the human brain. To do that, though, it took a lot of work to create learning data from a large number of defective images and make the computer remember the correct answers. For example, during the testing phase, the first examination was successful, but the second attempt suddenly failed without a cause visible to the eye. After overcoming various challenges, the inspection system has been completed for the time being, and the verification tests are being conducted at the client companies. The job of entering new markets with cutting-edge technology was attractive, and I was able to take my ideas into account, such as developing interfaces for camera operation. The AI project is currently a joint venture with Israeli tech centers called Musashi AI. In the future, we aim to further expand our range of products beyond the metal field so we could reach new markets.
