AI AOI for Aerospace and Defense PCB Assembly

What makes aerospace and defense PCBA inspection different

Class 3 workmanship. IPC describes Class 3 as "High Performance/Harsh Environment Electronic Products," which "includes products where continued high performance or performance-on-demand is critical, equipment downtime cannot be tolerated." A condition that is acceptable on a Class 2 product can be a defect on a Class 3 product, so the inspection program has to be tight, and every call still gets a human decision. When most of those calls are false, reviewers spend their attention on non-defects.

Low volume, many part numbers. A defense or space program may build a few dozen assemblies, then return to the same design months later. Lines run many short jobs, and each one needs an inspection program before the first board ships. If programming takes hours of engineering time, it competes with the work itself.

Board images can be controlled data. Under the ITAR, "technical data" includes information "required for the design, development, production, manufacture, assembly … of defense articles," including "blueprints, drawings, photographs, plans." Releasing technical data to a foreign person, even inside the United States, is treated as an export. Whether a specific AOI image is ITAR technical data is a determination for your export-compliance team, but many teams start from the assumption that it might be.

Cybersecurity requirements in the supply chain. The DFARS rule that brings the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) into defense contracts took effect on November 10, 2025, with a phased rollout. It applies to contractors and subcontractors that process, store or transmit Federal Contract Information or Controlled Unclassified Information. Any shop-floor system that holds program data becomes part of that conversation.

Counterfeit-part prevention. AS9100D clause 8.1.4 requires organizations to "plan, implement, and control processes … for the prevention of counterfeit or suspect counterfeit part use." Inspection is one of the places where wrong or suspect parts can be caught before they ship.

How DaoAI fits these requirements

• Inspection data stays in your plant. All AI runs on the machine; inspection data never leaves your factory. Board images stay on the machine and in the systems you export them to, such as your MES. Model training runs offline, with no image upload. For network-isolated lines, see On-premise AI AOI and data security.
• No CAD on the inspection station. Every DaoAI AOI programs itself from one golden board in 30 seconds to 5 minutes, with no CAD, Gerber or component library required (how golden-board programming works).
• Controlled changes. Permissions are set per level: program, tune and train, or inspect only. Locked parameters stay at the values you set, and for each check you can limit the range of AI updates or turn AI updates off (full control).
• Board-level records. Every inspection is stored with its images and verdict. You can export CSV results, defect crops and the whole-board image for each unit, with defect codes mapped to your MES vendor codes (production integration).
• Marking checks. OCR and OCV read and verify component markings, date codes and lot codes. Marking verification supports a counterfeit-prevention process but does not replace one.
• Fewer false calls to review. With tuning, the false-call rate can reach about 1%.

Recommended DaoAI configurations

Compare the full range on the machines page. For defect-specific guidance, see lifted lead detection and through-hole AOI.

What DaoAI does and does not claim

DaoAI does not claim ITAR registration, CMMC certification, AS9100 certification or any other aerospace or defense compliance determination. These obligations belong to your organization and your contracts. What we can do is give your quality, IT and export-compliance teams the technical details they need: where data is stored, what the machine connects to, and who can change a program. Sales and engineering support come from DaoAI's North American team in Vancouver, plus authorized partners.