Smart Products Made Smarter

Leonardo is fusing computational imaging, digital modelling, and AI-driven robotics to overhaul how it designs and builds high-value, low-volume sensor systems—such as those used in defence and aerospace. These complex sensors, produced in small numbers, pose unique engineering challenges. Traditional design and manufacturing processes treat sensing, signal processing, and production as separate stages, which limits performance and efficiency. This project aims to blur those boundaries by creating a fully integrated digital design, assembly, and manufacturing capability. It combines machine learning, collaborative robots (cobotics), novel materials, additive manufacturing, and digital twinning—a virtual replica of the physical system that evolves throughout its life. If successful, this approach could cut the time from concept to production for advanced sensors, while improving their performance and reliability. The impact would be felt in systems that quietly underpin national security, air traffic control, and environmental monitoring—infrastructure that depends on precise, long-lived remote sensing. The research is applied, targeting a specific industrial need at Leonardo, but the integrated digital manufacturing model it develops could influence how other high-tech, low-volume industries approach complex production.