Discover new technologies by our partners

Some applications where a mobile robot or a handheld tool is moved through a large workspace require sub-cm positioning or localisation accuracy, which cannot be achieved with conventional methods based on LiDAR, ultrasound or ultra wideband (UWB). While motion capture systems and robotic total stations could achieve the required accuracy, their integration is often not feasible due to high cost (starting over 15k USD), deployment effort and difficulty of use, especially in field and ad-hoc applications. The technology offer is a system that can bridge this gap and is easy to integrate and set up, highly automatic and affordable.

Our technology makes it possible to build intelligent personal assistants for online information processing. The intelligent personal assistants can search, extract, structure and monitor the information in online networks and media. The technology also allows to detect target patterns in electronic communication networks providing an increase in the efficiency and in the comfort level of the end users and corporate employees.

Accurate, photoplethysmography (PPG)-based vital signs measurements can be done using smart hearables. Our approach uses proprietary algorithms and multiple photodiode/sensor pairs to effectively remove motion artifacts. As such, accurate bio-signals can be obtained dynamically under motion, and in a continuous real-time manner. By removing the motion noise instead of using accelerometer-based compensation techniques, we can preserve very detailed raw information that can in turn be used to compute other bio-signals including, respiratory rate (RR), heart rate variability (HRV), and R-R interval (RRI). With these parameters, sleep apnea detection can be done using our smart hearables, in a non-invasive, continuous real-time manner. Upon detecting sleep apnea episodes in users, the smart hearable can issue an audible instruction to wake them up, thus allowing the user to readjust their sleep posture. This can potentially be a useful home-based sleep apnea monitoring tool.

The capsule endoscope (CE) has revolutionised gastrointestinal (GI) tract inspection. Traditional endoscopy requires a camera on the end of a cable to be inserted into the patient, with understandable anxiety prior to the procedure, additional risk during the procedure, and considerable discomfort both during and after the procedure. In contrast, CEs are pill-like miniature cameras, taken orally like any pill medication in an easy and angst-free manner, prior to travelling through the body and imaging the GI tract with minimal discomfort. Using these images, clinicians can make routine diagnoses of a range of diseases, including bowel cancer, Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis, to name a few. However, CEs travel through the digestive system in a passive manner. This limits the utility of the device in terms of speed, positioning and overall control. Therefore, a capsule endoscope capable of locomotion has been developed by our researchers. Using impact forces, friction in the GI tract is overcome and allows control over speed and positioning when inspecting the GI tract. Further, the underlying locomotion technology is likely applicable for delivery of other cargo, such as other miniaturised medical devices or drugs.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a biological method widely used to treat wastes and wastewater containing high levels of organic matter in the absence of oxygen to convert chemical energy in organic carbon to biogas. With AD, the waste volume can be reduced drastically with green energy generation simultaneously. In practical applications, complex structure or toxicity of substrates often impair AD performance associated with low degradation rate and unstable biogas production. Electron transfer among different guilds of microorganisms is the rate-limiting step of AD process, and it is also the basic reason behind the deteriorated AD performance. This technology relates to the dosing of conductive materials which can facilitate interspecies electron transfer and improve the overall metabolic activity in anaerobic digestion. In addition, it is a green and cost-effective technology as those selected materials (e.g. biochar, activated carbon, and iron scrap) can be readily obtained from nature or produced from wastes and recovered for repeated use. The technology provider is looking for waste and wastewater biological treatment providers to license and commercialize this technology.

In manufacturing and building construction, the installation of elements in a particular arrangement for covering a surface (that is much larger than the elements) is usually done in a repetitive manual process. In construction, particularly tiling is a strenuous and labour-intensive process undertaken by a shrinking pool of skilled workers. Although no complex joinery is involved, it is challenging to automate as it imposes sub-mm tolerances rarely found elsewhere on site and involves a precisely dosed, cement-based bonding material. This technology provides a solution to overcome these challenges and implemented a novel robotic solution to automate tiling work on construction sites. The goal is a robotic co-worker that relieves tilers of the most repetitive tasks. The compact mobile robot autonomously navigates the work site, applies thinset adhesive and places tiles on the surface, even in confined spaces. It offers increased productivity, consistent quality and detailed data available for quality assurance (QA) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) exchange. Completing a real tiling job on a live construction site has validated the solution. The technology can be licensed and consulting for assisting in its application is available. For the on-site robotic tiling use case, co-development of a market-ready system can be explored. For companies operating prefabrication plants for building elements, solutions to automate finishing tasks such as tiling, plastering or waterproofing can be developed. Large-scale repetitive assembly processes in manufacturing may also be automated using the developed technologies.

This technology encompasses a novel process to creating functional fibres from waste fruit, vegetable or seaweed biomasses. With the rise of consumers wanting clean-label or natural products, the demand for new and more natural ingredients within the food sector has increased. To meet this challenge, there has been a surge of new “functional” fibre products that bring technical or textural functionality to food systems. Highly functional fibres show superior texturising, stabilising and fat mimicking functionality that until recently, had only been provided by traditional food ingredients (i.e. agar, carrageenan, pectin, alginate, methylcellulose etc). This technology is aimed at food ingredient/bioprocessing companies with access to food waste/seaweed biomasses, who would like valorise these streams. Applicable biomasses include carrot waste, seed oil cakes, protein extraction waste, citrus peel, juicing waste or various other sources. The streams can be evaluated for active ingredients and can be converted into various types of functional fibres. Once fibre functionality is optimised any new fibre products can be evaluated within pre-trailed applications for marketing purposes for the producer.

The technology offer is an Augmented Reality (AR) through Head-Up Display (HUD) for Off-Highway Vehicles (OHVs), in which a transparent display that presents data on the windscreen without requiring the user to look away from his or her usual working viewpoint. Therefore, this will allow the machine driver to stay focused on his work whilst at the same time read the important messages such as measurements, instructions, work-orders and warnings. The technology can be applied in construction machines, forklifts, harbour cranes, forest machines and agricultural machines. The technology is field-proven, and the company is looking to initiate first production targeting one or a few OHV markets. For their value proposition, the company's HUD visualization hardware system compromises optics, electronics and mechanics protected by intellectual properties (IPs) which can be licensed.

Ultrasonic synthetic method is used to prepare various nano-porous (nanofoam) metal current collectors, including, but not limited to, copper metal for anode and aluminum/nickel metal for cathode. The innovative nanofoam metal current collectors are used to prepare high performance lithium ion (Li-ion) battery, which shows good capacity retention and cycling stability even under fast charge/discharge rates. It is easy to be industrialized and can improve rapid charge/discharge rates and electrochemical capacity retention of Li-ion battery.