20,000
updates to the car per season
400 GB
data gathered per race
50%
fewer faults in two years
Embed quality in your operation
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Our Privacy Notice describes how we process Personal Data about you. It also provides information on how you may exercise any of your rights as a Data Subject. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by clicking on the "Unsubscribe" link within the electronic marketing communications sent to you. By submitting this form, you agree to our Terms of Use.
Why automate inspection?
Quality inspection has a cost problem, and it is rarely the instrument on the bench. The real spend sits in the hours: setting up, measuring, repositioning parts, waiting on the lab, then repeating it all next shift. Those same manual steps are where most measurement error creeps in. Add a waning skills market, an ageing workforce and growing backlogs, and the pressure only builds, in aerospace and defence most of all.
Automation is how quality scales. An automated routine measures the same way every time, at a throughput no manual workflow can match. It runs unattended through the night, works safely alongside the line, and feeds results back in real time, so drift is caught and corrected upstream at the first sign of it.
Here is the part that gets missed: you are probably further along than you think. Most manufacturers already own the right technology, trackers and scanners, and already run it by hand. The missing step is automating a process you have already proven, with the same technology and the same vendor.
What you will discover
01 - Fuselage and large structures
Measure the whole structure, without moving or climbing it
Fuselage sections, wing skins and large panels are too big to bring to a machine and too tall to inspect by hand. Recipes for measuring profile and critical features across the whole structure at production pace, including lights-out overnight runs.
02 - Metrology assisted assembly
Let metrology guide the robot
Robots are fast but drift under load, so on their own they cannot hold aerospace tolerances across a part many metres long. Recipes for feeding tracker position back in real time, so the robot corrects itself as it places the part and verifies the join.
03 - In-service and damage assessment
Scan the part, let the software judge it
In service, parts wear, deform and take damage, often with no drawing to hand. Recipes for capturing the full surface with no targets and letting the software map every deviation against CAD or a gold-standard reference.
04 - Component inspection at volume
Check the repeat parts without tying up the line
Machined fittings, brackets and formed panels come through in numbers, each to be checked without slowing the line or tying up a metrologist. Recipes for modular near-line cells you program at your desk while the cell keeps running.
Proven in the field
easyJet
A portable handheld scanner with Geomagic Control X cut a wing-flap damage assessment from several days of wax rubbings to a few hours, an estimated 80% time saving, and the application won a TCT Metrology Award.
Airbus, A400M final assembly, Seville.
Two Leica laser trackers drive an NC positioner that aligns the fuselage and wings automatically, with a full measurement in about two minutes and no operator running the trackers.
GKN Aerospace
A robot-moved Leica T-Scan 5, tracked by a Leica Absolute Tracker AT960, inspects a machined wing rib in about 20 minutes against 90 for a full CMM check, and is designed to run around 60 ribs a day.
Premium Aerotec, Nordenham.
Leica Absolute Trackers guide Fanuc robots placing carbon-fibre stringers onto A350 fuselage shells, correcting each move against the CAD model in real time.
The little book of | Manufacturing Intelligence
You're closer to automated inspection than you think
Proven recipes for faster, more reliable quality control, using measurement technology you may already run by hand.
Four use cases, organised by the job to be done, with eleven proven recipes in all. Each one lays out the ingredients, the method and the outcome, so a routine you already run by hand becomes one you can automate.
Achievable automation, on your terms
Why automate inspection?
The next step in automation doesn't have to be a leap. Hexagon is spotlighting how manufacturers can move beyond the all-or-nothing choice between rigid, off-the-shelf systems and overwhelming custom engineering projects to build automation that fits where they are today, and grows with them tomorrow.
From turnkey robotic inspection cells to fully customized production workflows, discover practical pathways that help manufacturers automate quality, increase efficiency, and inspect with confidence. Explore our latest product innovations, research findings, and real-world approaches to achievable automation.
Three ways to automate inspection
Automated metrology for small parts, no robot programming required.
Not sure where to start?
Talk with one of Hexagon's manufacturing experts to explore the automation options that fit your production today — and where they can take you next.
The Little Book of Aerospace & Defence Automated Inspection
The same sensors you use by hand, integrated onto a mobile robot as volumes grow.
Certified partners like MARI, built around the technology you already run.
PRESTO lowering the barrier to automation
See how PRESTO XS, the new entry point to automated metrology within the PRESTO Quality Stations ecosystem, brings industrial-grade inspection to small, complex parts:
- Compact, mobile design built for space-constrained environments with minimal infrastructure changes
- No robot programming required — operators create and edit inspection routines directly from the shop-floor interface
- 2-in-1 flexibility — switch between automated cobot inspection and handheld scanning as demands change
- Reduced inspection cycle times and transport delays, freeing skilled metrology experts from repetitive scanning tasks
- Scales alongside larger PRESTO Quality Stations as automation needs grow
Automation shouldn't require manufacturers to choose between a rigid, one-size-fits-all system and an overwhelming custom engineering project," said Joel Martin, Director of Product Management, Portable Division, at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. "Our goal is to give manufacturers practical options that allow them to automate today while leaving room to grow tomorrow."
Portable metrology & scanning automation that starts with measurement
See how Hexagon's portable metrology systems give manufacturers a practical path from manual inspection to full automation:
- Handheld scanners, laser trackers and optical measurement technologies for manual inspection today
- A clear path to integrate those same sensors into robotic inspection cells as production volumes grow
- The ATS800 integrated on an autonomous mobile robot (AMR), bringing inspection directly into large-scale production for industries like aerospace and shipbuilding
- Reduced retraining and preserved measurement workflows, with quality data guiding decisions earlier in the process
MARI & integration partners built on an open ecosystem
Hexagon's automation strategy is intentionally open. Rather than requiring manufacturers to adopt proprietary automation platforms, Hexagon collaborates with certified system integrators and robotics partners, including MARI, to help customers build automation solutions around the technologies and production environments they already use:
- Certified system integrators and robotics partners, including MARI
Automation architectures built around your existing technologies and production environment - Hexagon's measurement expertise underpinning every reliable automated inspection workflow
- Flexibility to select the partners and platforms that fit your operation, without vendor lock-in
