Electronic Schematic Recognition

We demonstrate the feasibility of using image analysis for automatically converting from a scanned electronic circuit schematic to a netlist of the components and their connections. A preprocessing stage removes non-components from the image (component label and values). The image is then segmented to produce a set of graphical primitives (lines, circles, and arrows). The recognition stage uses rule-based templates to match primitives to components. At present, the software will only recognise a limited range of components, although the rule-based approach allows the system to be extended to handle a wider range of component types or styles. The final stage constructs a netlist of components and their connectivity. Netlists are frequently used to represent electronic circuits for simulation.