Mitsubishi Electric and HACARUS Corporation have announced their decision to enhance their collaboration in the development of AI-based visual inspection applications for manufacturing.
Details of cooperation between Mitsubishi and HACARUS:
In line with this agreement, Mitsubishi Electric will acquire an equity stake in HACARUS. This strategic partnership aims to capitalize on the combined resources and technologies of both companies, fostering synergies that will maximize their mutual technological and business potential. By leveraging HACARUS’ expertise, Mitsubishi Electric anticipates accelerating the development and provision of integrated and automated AI-based visual inspection solutions, thereby enabling customers to enhance manufacturing quality and overall productivity. Additionally, this collaboration will grant HACARUS access to Mitsubishi Electric’s extensive sales infrastructure in Japan and overseas, further expanding its market reach.
HACARUS is a company that offers a distinctive visual inspection solution powered by a compact AI. Apart from their expertise in AI development, HACARUS also excels in integrating AI with different factory automation (FA) devices. In December 2023, Mitsubishi Electric introduced MELSOFT VIXIO, a visual inspection software based on AI and equipped with their exclusive Maisart AI technology. This software aims to automate visual inspection processes, enhance manufacturing quality, and tackle the issue of Japan’s declining labor force.
The opinions of the managers of Mitsubishi and HACARUS about this cooperation:
“As part of our strategy for the FA systems business, we are addressing key challenges facing modern society,” said Toshie Takeuchi, Group President of Mitsubishi Electric’s Factory Automation Systems Group. “The automation of production lines is accelerating due to labor shortages, but many visual inspections are still performed manually by humans. Through this collaboration, we look forward to strengthening our response to customer needs through MELSOFT VIXIO, supported by HACARUS’ expertise in AI-based visual inspection, to address labor shortages in the manufacturing sector.”
“Since HACARUS founding in 2014, our company has sought to “measure” in a variety of industrial areas and has made it its mission to contribute to society by creating additional value from data using the latest technologies such as AI, IoT, and robots. For customers in the manufacturing industry, we offer HACARUS Check, a product that reduces the manual labor required for visual inspection. Through this capital and business alliance, we will strive to develop solutions that promote digital transformation at manufacturing sites, focusing primarily on surface inspection, by combining Mitsubishis Electric’s FA products and knowledge with our AI technology to solve social issues such as the decline in the working population,” said Takashi Someda, CEO at HACARUS.
Mitsubishi Electric future actions in the use of artificial intelligence:
Mitsubishi Electric‘s FA systems business is enhancing its range of solutions for the digitalization of manufacturing and the advancement of Circular digital engineering. To streamline and digitize various processes, including design, production, testing, operation, and maintenance, Mitsubishi Electric is continuously investing and collaborating with software companies to offer customers top-notch products and solutions. In recent times, the decline in labor forces, particularly skilled labor, in different countries has hurt manufacturing productivity levels. As a response, rule-based visual inspection using image-processing technologies has been adopted and developed. However, the increasing difficulty in detecting defects like scratches and uneven colors has created a demand for AI technology that can further automate inspection processes and alleviate the workload on product inspectors.
