☕ TL;DR

Bucket Robotics makes defect detection models way faster and easier to deploy. CAD goes in — detection model comes out.

👥 The Team

Hi everyone, we’re Matt and Steph, and we’re Bucket Robotics!

📉 The Problem

Defects are a universal challenge in manufacturing, particularly with methods like injection molding, die casting, and 3D printing. Factories using these methods frequently retool their lines for different products making it difficult and costly to gather enough data to train defect detection models.

Manufacturers strive to ensure that only the highest quality products reach their customers. Avoiding the shipment of defective products not only protects their reputation but also safeguards expensive machinery from damage, maximizes yield by leveraging advanced analytics, and prevents the progression of faulty parts through the production line, which can lead to compounded waste and increased costs.

A 2017 study estimates that yield losses account for 44% of sheet metal used in the production of passenger vehicles — and we want to bring that number down, saving money and the environment.

Traditionally, defect detection comes in two flavors:

1. Pay a person to watch your line.
2. Train a vision model the old-fashioned way — wait for defective parts to come out and add your sample to the dataset.

Paying people to check parts is inefficient and a miserable job. Collecting enough labeled data samples to train a model is impractical for rapidly retooled outputs, and the labeling is expensive. This often leaves manufacturers with a critical gap in quality assurance, leading to increased scrap, downtime, and potentially unhappy customers with defective parts.

📈 The Solution

We help eliminate the need for inefficient human monitoring and outdated defect detection by providing a system where we generate defect detection models using CAD files—something every part designed for modern manufacturing has. Our models can run on an edge computing device as small as a Jetson Orin Nano and be continually refined with real-world data.

Here’s why this is a game-changer:

• Early Deployment: Your defect detector can arrive at your manufacturing line before you’ve manufactured any parts. This means you can catch defects right from the get-go.
• Continuous Improvement: As defects start to appear, we can automatically refine and improve the model, ensuring your system remains top-notch.
• Classification: The system tells you how the part is defective, allowing you to dial in your tooling configuration and maintenance cycle—e.g. when it's time to create a new mold.

Check out a video on our process here: Bucket Robotics | Defect Detection

🙏How You Can Help

We are seeking connections and collaborations to drive our mission forward. If you or anyone in your network is interested in learning more or helping out, we want to hear from you! We’re specifically looking to connect with:

• Quality Assurance and Factory Automation leaders
• Companies and brands in high-volume and precision manufacturing
• Experts in the manufacturing and defect detection industries

If that’s you or someone you know, please get in touch!