Technology


Tekt Industries to develop AR quality control device for PCBs

Technology




Product design and engineering group Tekt Industries has won backing to develop an augmented reality (AR) based quality control and inspection system, initially for use in printed circuit board manufacturing.

The company has received a $250,000 grant from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) to lead the development of an AI Camera based compact vision processing and control module.

Others involved in the project are the University of Melbourne, Entech Electronics, Microsoft and Mobile Automation.

The first of its kind solution aims to reduce equipment and engineering costs and increase operational efficiencies for PCB manufacturers and assemblers of electronics.

Tekt Industries CEO Matthew Adams said: “Ultimately we’re making a system that will be the equivalent of a Google search for PCB hardware design.

“All stakeholders across design and manufacture can gain insight into the what, where, when, and why of a design through an AR based user interface.”

The system includes a camera and vision processing module that uses AI to recognise a PCB’s features based on the design files associated with the board, which are stored in the cloud.

It displays information to an AR headset while being overlaid on the physical PCB in front of the operator.

The inspection hardware compares this downloaded ‘digital twin’ (the design file) with the physical PCB in front of it, identifying design features and quality control issues.

The operator can then view this information via MR (Mixed Reality) smart glasses.

Text estimates the product would cost between $25,000 and $50,000.

Picture: Tekt Industries/‘Mixed Reality’ (MR) view of Microsoft’s Hololens 2 componentry

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