Robotic 3D Scanning: From CMMs to ABB's 3DQI Cell

Every machined casting, stamped panel or welded frame has to match its drawing, and someone has to prove it does. For decades that meant gauges, then coordinate measuring machines in a quiet lab. Robotic 3D scanning moves the measurement closer to the line: a robot carries an optical scanner around the part, captures millions of points and compares them with the CAD model. This post follows the path from hand gauges and the first CMMs to laser trackers, then looks at this autumn's news from eviXscan3D and Cognex and at ABB's own 3D Quality Inspection cell, 3DQI.

A Leica Absolute Tracker ATS600 scanning a large steel ring section in a workshop, 2019. Photo: FanchonH / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How factories measured parts before scanners

Before electronic measurement, inspection meant people with fixed gauges, micrometers and height gauges. In July 1942 the photographer Ann Rosener pictured Alma Jean Vincent, a former librarian working as a visual gauge operator in a Midwestern aircraft plant, checking airplane motor parts. According to the original caption, she had only six months of war work behind her and was already meeting the plant's requirements. A gauge only tells you whether one feature is in or out of tolerance, so a complex part needed a whole set of them and a long list of readings, written down on paper.

Alma Jean Vincent, a visual gauge operator, inspects airplane motor parts in a Midwestern aircraft plant, July 1942. Photo: Ann Rosener, Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The coordinate measuring machine changed that. The Ferranti company of Scotland built the first CMM in the 1950s to measure precision parts for its military products, and it had only two axes. In the 1960s DEA of Italy and LK of the UK made the first three axis models. David McMurtry then developed the electronic touch trigger probe and founded what is now Renishaw. A CMM touches the part point by point, which is accurate but slow, and it usually sits in a temperature controlled room away from production.

A bridge type coordinate measuring machine with a scanning head, built to measure parts point by point. Photo: AB Technology (Newark) Ltd. / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Large parts needed something portable. Kam Lau invented the laser tracker in 1987 while at NIST, and his company API made it commercially available in 1988, with the first production unit leased to Boeing for nine months. A tracker follows a reflector with a laser beam and measures its position in three dimensions over many metres, which made it useful for aligning aircraft wings during assembly. Measuring arms with laser line scanners followed, giving inspectors a way to capture whole surfaces by hand instead of single points.

A laser tracking interferometer at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. Photo: NIST via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Robot mounted scanners on the line in 2026

Today the common setup is a structured light or laser scanner mounted on a robot, often with a turntable, so the same scan path runs on every part. On 1 October 2026 Metrology News reported that scanner maker eviXscan3D is pushing further, toward 100 percent in-line inspection. It notes that a single robot mounted scanner remains a staple, but on fast lines the time to move one scanning head around a complex part can break the cycle time. Its answer is several VDI/VDE certified scanner heads around one inspection zone, triggered together and merged into one coordinate system.

A seven axis measuring arm with a laser scanner attached, next to the scan on screen, 2019. Photo: TestoCH / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB has its own cell for this job. Its 3D Quality Inspection cell, 3DQI, launched in 2020, uses a single white light optical sensor that captures millions of 3D points per shot and compares the result with the part's CAD model. ABB says it detects deviations smaller than half the width of a human hair, with accuracy below 100 micrometres, and runs about ten times faster than a traditional CMM. The sensor can ride on any robot with a handling capacity above 20 kg, and it works with tracks and rotary tables. ABB piloted the technology in automotive work, including at the supplier Benteler.

ABB's 3D Quality Inspection (3DQI) cell scanning a metal part. Photo: ABB

The 3DQI is meant for offline test stations next to production, and ABB names automotive, aerospace, heavy machinery and construction as its target sectors. Programming runs through the Sidio Planner PowerPack in RobotStudio, so scan paths can be planned on the CAD model before the robot moves. For smaller parts, a cobot such as the GoFa CRB 15000 with ABB's Ultra Accuracy option can carry a probe or a compact scanner. That is our suggestion; ABB has not announced such a package. Our post on AI quality inspection covers the camera based checks that look for surface defects.

A GoFa cobot with ABB's Ultra Accuracy option, here fitted with a measuring probe. Photo: ABB

Where robot metrology goes next

On 22 September 2026 Cognex agreed to buy RealSense, the depth camera maker that Intel founded in 2014 and spun out in 2025, and Design News covered the deal on 5 October. RealSense cameras guide fixed arm robots, mobile robots, quadrupeds and humanoids. Cognex chief executive Matt Moschner said the deal spans everything from 2D and 3D machine vision measurement to 3D depth perception and robotic navigation. Depth cameras are far less precise than metrology scanners, but the same robot may soon use both.

An Intel RealSense D435 depth camera on a small tripod, 2021. RealSense is now being bought by Cognex. Photo: Marc Auledas / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In factories, the likely next step is measuring every part instead of a sample, with results fed straight back to the machine that made it. A robot scanner could flag a drifting weld fixture or a worn tool before scrap piles up. For homes and small workshops, 3D scanning has already reached phones and low cost turntable scanners used for 3D printing, though without robots or metrology grade accuracy. Metrology grade robot cells will stay in factories, where scrapped parts and recalls cost enough to justify them.

The 3D scanner head mounted on an ABB robot in the 3DQI cell. Photo: ABB

Robots repeat a position very well but are less accurate in absolute terms, so a scanner on a robot needs careful calibration or an external tracker to keep its measurements honest. Shiny, black or transparent surfaces still confuse optical scanners. Cells are expensive, and their data is only useful if someone can read deviation maps and act on them. Metrology engineers who understand both robots and measurement uncertainty remain scarce, and training them takes years. ABB says its Benteler pilot freed skilled workers for other tasks, so the inspectors stay but spend less of their day on repetitive checks.

ABB robots working on car bodies in a body shop. Photo: ABB

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