Audi Expands AR-Based Visual Inspection
SuPAR supports Audi in accelerating digital quality inspection and improving visual verification across product development and manufacturing processes. Audi is strengthening its digital inspection capabilities with SuPAR, an augmented reality-based visual inspection solution designed to bring CAD data directly into the real production environment. By overlaying 3D design data onto physical components in real time, SuPAR enables manufacturing and quality teams to perform faster, clearer, and more consistent inspections.
In today’s highly competitive automotive industry, the ability to adopt and scale new technologies plays a critical role in improving efficiency, reducing errors, and supporting digital transformation. AR-based inspection technologies such as SuPAR help simplify complex workflows by making deviations, missing components, and positional inaccuracies easier to detect directly on the shop floor.
One of Audi’s key application areas for SuPAR is the inspection of workpiece carriers used for pre-assembled components. Through a tablet-based AR interface, users can visualize the required contour based on CAD SuPAR Press Release data as well as the complete 3D model directly on the real component. This allows deviations in component position or missing elements to be identified quickly and intuitively.
Detected issues can be marked directly within the SuPAR application, eliminating the need for separate manual documentation. Inspection results can then be exported as a PDF report, 3D twin, or Excel protocol and shared with the relevant departments and globally distributed partners.
Another important use case is completeness inspection in body-in-white production, particularly for joining elements such as weld studs. By preparing the project with the relevant body structure and stud data, users can perform AR-based tracking on the component, display individual studs through the structure tree, compare them with the CAD reference, and document any deviations directly in SuPAR.
A key factor behind the successful implementation has been the close collaboration between Audi teams and SuPAR. Audi’s BIW Geometry Analysis Team, one of the early adopters and internal pioneers of SuPAR at Audi, highlighted the value of direct communication and continuous feedback:
“Direct communication with the SuPAR developers enables our needs to be understood quickly and our suggestions to be effectively reflected in future updates. This is clearly demonstrated through regular exchange meetings, where feedback is collected, discussed in detail, and, whenever possible, supported by workshop-style sessions” comments AUDI BIW Geometry Analysis Team.
Thanks to strong internal communication and the active involvement of Audi’s early users, additional use cases have been identified across the organization. As a result, SuPAR has gained wider adoption across multiple Audi departments and has contributed to the signing of a multi-year framework agreement with the Volkswagen Group.
The number of SuPAR users continues to grow as more teams within AUDI AG recognize the potential of AR based visual inspection to improve quality control, support digital workflows, and make inspection processes more efficient and transparent.
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