Fully automated dot‑peen system with advanced vision detection: complete!
One of the things we’re most proud of at Acutec is how deeply we involve students in real engineering. When we take on a PSB student project, we don’t hand out “kid‑sized” assignments. We bring them into the real world- full systems, full integration, full responsibility. And this latest project proves just how far they can go.
Over the past 60+ hours on site, our PSB students designed and built a turn‑key automated dot‑peen marking system that mirrors the same level of engineering we expect from our in‑house teams. This wasn’t a demo. This wasn’t a mock‑up. This was a real, production‑capable system.
The build includes:
- A Fanuc collaborative robot fully integrated with a Telesis 1700 dot‑peen marker for completely hands‑free operation
- Automatic program call‑up driven by camera‑based part recognition
- A vision system built around a $20 Amazon camera—proving that smart engineering beats expensive hardware
- Intelligent marking verification that identifies good vs. bad marks and sorts parts accordingly
- A microprocessor that logs images, decisions, and confidence percentages for offline review
- Software that highlights exactly which pixels triggered a “bad” call and tracks long‑term trends
This is the kind of system that would go straight onto a production floor. And these students built it.
A huge shout‑out to Brandon as well for guiding the students through the microprocessor and Python side of the project. His mentorship was a major part of this success.
If you’re curious, we’ve included videos showing trial runs, production cycles with confidence readings, and bad‑part detection in action.
