KTP with Elite Electronic Systems Awarded ‘Outstanding’ Grade by Innovate UK

Our KTP project with Elite Electronic Systems Ltd has been awarded the highest grade of ‘Outstanding’ by the Innovate UK’s independent assessment panel!

This 2-year partnership with Elite set out to embed advanced digital manufacturing capabilities within the company’s Surface Mount Technology (SMT) process, developing a digital twin (DT) to enhance fault detection and isolation, as well as real-time production monitoring for PCB assembly.

Towards the end of this project, we have achieved the following:

• A real-time Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) data pipeline with SQL and Power BI dashboards on the shop floor
• A DT-based AOI threshold optimisation model to reduce false inspection flags
• A ML-based predictive maintenance system for SMT turrets
• An OCR-based solution to automate conversion of customer BoMs into production-ready formats

The project also delivered a peer-reviewed conference paper at the IEEE INDIN 2025, as well as other poster presentations and public engagements, including showcasing the work to 200+ visitors at the NI Science Festival 2026’s “Robots at Work and Play” event.