As part of its “Roadmap to Useful Robotics”, Shadow identified the need for a disruptive autonomous grasping solution. The goal is to be able to grasp any object with a simple high-level command. For the solution to be robust, it relies heavily on a tight integration between the hand, or fingertip sensors, and the grasp control algorithms. In this project we will focus on developing the miniaturised tactile and proximity sensing capabilities needed for a low-cost and robust way of closing the loop in our grasping pipeline. We will focus on a system that keeps learning the best way to grasp different objects; starting from a good grasp configuration and refining it autonomously each time an object is grasped.
Cancer is the second leading cause of global mortality with over 8,000,000 deaths worldwide (WHO, 2015) and 163,444 in the UK (CRUK, 2014). Interventions that leverage the immune system, including antibodies and cell-based therapies, promise to revolutionise cancer treatment with cures seen in previously untreatable patients. However, many obstacles remain such as difficulties penetrating solid tumours, depleted immunity, serious side effects, logistics and high costs. Consequently, there is large unmet clinical need for patients with certain cancers, especially ovarian and pancreatic, where improvement in 5-year survival rates has been very limited. BioMoti, in a new alliance with Pharmidex, is developing the Oncojan™ platform to overcome current limitations. Oncojans™ are a new class of precision sustained therapeutics that target CD95L on tumours. CD95L is overexpressed on cells of the tumour bulk and vasculature (but not on healthy tissue) where it promotes proliferation, metastasis and immune evasion. This proposal aims to build on exciting pilot data showing that Oncojan™ formulation results in remarkable preclinical activity; 65-fold reduction in tumour burden, doubling of median survival and loss of toxicity compared to the Taxol® standard-of-care in ovarian cancer. Our main focus will be on the seriously unmet medical need in ovarian cancer with complimentary studies in the deadly triple negative breast and pancreatic cancer indications. This will enable commercial investment to support formal development.
With an ever ageing population, there are an increasing number of patients requiring medical devices, such as artificial joints and dental implants to enable everyday activity. An improvement of current implants will offer tremendous benefits. In particular, there is an urgent need for technologies to improve the fixation of implants/devices in bone without infection occurring. These will contain doped nano-sized bioactive glass to enable strong integration with bone and anti-microbial properties. The proposed project has 4 key deliverables: 1- Synthesis of novel nano- materials by state of the art manufacturing processes; 2- Development of optimum formulations with these novel materials; 3 Selection of optimum coating technique for application onto implant substrates and 4- Biological testing of coated implant prototypes.
NANOMEDICINE (NanoMed) is a new era in medicine that exploits nano-engineering to deliver the right dose of therapy to the right place, at the right time. LIF is a growth factor important for maintaining brain health and the SME "LNT" has pioneered NanoMed for delivery of LIF as a revolutionary approach to treat the devastating autoimmune disease MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (MS). Incurable, MS attacks the brain, starting in young adulthood and costing the global economy some $100bn pa. AIMS: having proven LIFNano (LN001) is far superior to the best alternative therapy for MS, this project will now deliver LN001 to patients on two fronts: (i) by establishing the first UK-based commercial resource for NanoMed; and (ii) by securing LN001 in a clinical formula. Three levels of synergy operate: UK manufacture, UK intellectual property with worldwide exclusive licence to LNT, and UK-based global leader in new therapeutic approaches to MS. The gain to the UK economy will be high and the added value of I-UK support to LNT will exceed 100-fold on licencing as Big Pharma become engaged especially since LN001 is applicable to a wide range of degenerative conditions. Further added value is in the increased specialist portfolio of UK's High Value Manufacturing Catapult (CPI).
Sound effect (SFX) synthesis has the potential to revolutionise the sound design process for cross-platform
production of film, TV and game content. By integrating such technologies with intuitive cloud media
production tools developed by the lead partner, RPPtv, we can deliver a novel, cloud-based SFX synthesis
service. We will exploit the outputs of a highly successful Innovate UK Technology Inspired ICT Feasibility Study,
and groundbreaking research from Queen Mary University of London’s audio engineering team in order to
deploy a small number of lightweight sound synthesis models on the cloud, thus removing the need for large
sound sample libraries and the associated issues with their use in the production process. A prototype service
will be validated in audio post-production communities with Angell Sound studios, and evaluated by Sonorize,
film sound effects specialists, Dirty Dog Audio sound design for TV, CGI and film and Gareth Llewelyn Sound for
immersive, object-based and 3D audio. Outputs include the cross platform prototype cloud service and full
market analysis, business models and road map to launch a commercial service.
Photovoltaic solar cells deliver clean green energy and the technology has been well proven with over 2.5 GWp
currently installed in the UK alone. However, photovoltaic uptake is still limited due to the high CAPEX outlay
and slow Return on Investment (ROI). In order to accelerate widespread photovoltaic installation, there are
strong drivers to further reduce the cost per Watt of solar cells.
HI-PROSPECTS directly addresses this by developing innovative high resolution electrostatic ink jet technology
to deposit fine copper electrode structures, thereby increasing cell efficiencies by reducing shading losses and
replacing expensive and volatile silver pastes with cost effective nanoscale copper. HI-PROSPECTS will
demonstrate the technology on silicon cells and on next generation perovskite solar cells with target efficiency
of 17% at less than £230 / kWp. The project will facilitate the additional manufacture of up to 5 GWp of PV by
2023, generating 4100 GWh of electrical power.
Due to their outstanding energy and power density, lithium-ion batteries have become the main technology for
today’s electrical energy storage, from small portable electronics up to large electrical grid storage. However,
the lithium-ion bateries are not suitable for small scale energy storage because of their relatively high cost and
increasingly higher strain on lithium resources. Recently, sodium-ion batteries started to receive significantly
more attention as a low cost and affordable alternative to lithium-ion batteries. This collaboration between
School of Materials Science and Engineering at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and Johnson Matthey
(JM) will advance the development of low cost and highly performing anodes based on abundant and
renewable resources and cathode development based on reduced use or substitution of critical raw materials
with more abundant, lower cost, elements while maintaining performance. This will accelerate the
development of sodium ion batteries which could be later integrated into battery modules, creating a new
generation of affordable stationary battery systems.
Finance Summary Table – How to complete this section
Infection after total knee replacement is a serious, complex and traumatic complication of total knee replacement (TKR). Smart Spacer consists of a purpose-designed TKR with a smart innovative coating. The patented chromium nitride-silver coating (CrN-Ag) will be applied directly to an existing cobalt-chromium TKR
for use in a temporary spacer device, used during 2-stage treatment of periprosthetic infection. The 'Smart-Spacer' will directly treat infection (including MRSA and Staphylococcus Epidermis) which can be resistant to standard antibiotics, presenting significant advantages to the current treatment methods and exciting opportunities for the future of long-term coated primary prosthesis. Financial burden of revision for infection is over £300 million per annum in the NHS, UK alone and economic burden is worldwide. It is in both the public and Government interest to find better solutions to treating and preventing infection which is significant drain on resource and the economy worldwide.
A collaborative investigation into a novel method of processing graphene nanoplatelets for eased dispersion into polymer composites, this project seeks to exploit the exceptional electron and thermal conductive properties and gas barrier properties of graphene as a means of addressing a pressing, industrial problem with global implications, for which succesful application would result in significant social, economic and environmental benefits.
Knowledge Transfer Partnership
To develop novel conductive polymer composites, characterised by tuneable pyro-resistive properties, to be utilised in self-regulating heating devices.
The EVOLVE project will result in continued evolution of existing IVHM by creating an environment in which monitoring systems can learn and adapt to the health of the components being monitored, and will also contribute to reduced cost and installation impact, whilst extending the reach of IVHM to previously-inaccessible components. The aim is to move IVHM into a new era, where on-board monitoring systems begin to think and respond more like humans – to take the right action, at the right time, and in the right area.
This project will advance the core technologies required to create competitive advantage for the UK IVHM Supply Chain and provide a clear differentiator for future UK helicopter sales. Use of intelligent, self-organising, sensor nodes which can adapt and prioritise the system around the current health of the aircraft – focussing acquisition & processing where anomalies exist, as well as tuning data rates and feature extraction algorithms – will significantly enhance the effectiveness and reliability of health monitoring techniques. The resulting diagnostics will permit enhanced decision-making, enabling meaningful and timely maintenance actions.
The PrinTEG project builds on the previous development work of a UK-based consortia of SMEs and RTD partners who have developed cutting edge thermo-electric silicide materials and automotive demonstrators that use these materials to generate electrical power from waste exhaust heat. The PrinTEG project aims to take this intellectual property and develop advanced automated manufacture and in-process sensing technologies to enable the low-cost, mass-manufacture of these thermo-electric generators. In so doing the consortium will maximise the chances that the manufacture of these technologies will be undertaken within the UK, rather than being lost to the Far-East, as has been the case with electronics manufacture over the last few decades. PrinTEG is a business-led consortium, with Jaguar Cars acting as the initial route to market for the technology.
The specific developments to be undertaken within the project relate the development of:
- Automated powder handling and mechanical forming technoligies for the creation of nano-structured thermo-electric material.
- Automated sintering technologies for the creation of net-shape thermo-electrics without the need for wasteful cutting and milling.
- Automated Pick + Place technologies for the handling and placement of the thermoelectic legs that are of complex shapes.
- Automated brazing and in-process sensing to optimise speed, quality and yield for the fabrication of thermo-electic generators.
High definition content is becoming an integral part of global broadcasting, setting the standard for streaming, satellite, cable and terrestrial transmissions. More importantly, it is generating extremely large amounts of data that need to be delivered to a large number of users. Up to now, the distribution of conventional media has only been made possible by the application of compression systems that reduce the size of content sufficiently to be stored and distributed on a mass scale. Continuing this trend and exploiting recent breakthroughs in compression technology, the emerging High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard provides a base for handling very high resolution content. Underpinning the capabilities of HEVC are computationally expensive, extremely complex and resource demanding algorithms. Consequently, in its current state, HEVC is unfeasible for practical applications involving very high definition content. The main objective of this project is to research and develop economically viable, i.e., resource constrained, technology for very high definition content handling. The goal is to facilitate storage and transmission of the huge amounts of data contained in very high resolution content, paving a way for the provision of much greater quality of experience, facilitating quick deployment in a variety of important applications and sectors including broadcasting, digital cinema, medical, biological and defence.
The HARNet programme develops the radio techniques and technologies required to
develop an Integrated Modular Communications System (IMC) using software defined radio
technology for the next generation of civil aircraft. It will replace the current system of isolated federated radios systems.
The consortium that will execute the programme is led by Thales, with Cobham as a key collaborating partner, aided and supported by the research of the University of Bradford, the
University of Southampton, and Queen Mary College, London. The project is split into two phases of two and four years respectively, running sequentially starting on 1 August 2013.
The specific areas of technology development are novel antenna solutions, mesh networking, radio frequency power amplifiers, radio frequency to digital baseband
transceivers, I/Q radio bus interconnection, and reconfigurable software defined radio baseband waveform processors. A comprehensive automatic testing environment is being developed for cost effective testing and certification of a future IMC system.
The programme is partly funded by the Aeronautical Growth Partnership, a £2bn programme
of investment in the UK aeronautics industry by HM Government over a time span of seven years, managed by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Technology Strategy Board.
The consortium of Altrika, the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry, Roslin Cellab and Barts and The London bring R&D, manufacturing, clinical and commercialisation experience to the challenge of tracking clinically relevant cell populations in vitro and in vivo. The absence of an in vivo tracking methodology leads to R&D, manufacturing and clinical constraints, valuable researcher time and cell yield losses, and associated costs. This project utilises an innovative, non-toxic cell label that is stable, cost-effective and easy to detect. It will demonstrate applicability to a range of regenerative medicine therapies for unmet clinical needs, as well as increasing the efficiency of R&D activities and manufacturing processes, and improving the efficacy of clinical delivery. Given the growth of regenerative medicine, this platform could reduce industry costs by as much as $275m in 2020.
The M4 project is about making music collections easier to navigate and analyse by using the mood or emotion of the music. The primary application area is in TV and Radio production, but other fields such as domestic use would also apply. The main aspects and challenges of the project are:
* Extracting audio features from music to generate mood-related metadata to allow music tracks to be matched according to mood.
* Use existing mood metadata in production music to improve the matching process.
* Design a tool that returns a selection of mood-matched music tracks based on matches from a user's chosen 'seed' track.
* Adding visualisation of the music using colours and shapes to represent the mood to aid navigation of lists of music.
These developments will be incorporated into the Desktop Jukebox (a music database I Like Music provides for the BBC), which contains over a million commercial
and production music tracks. Programme makers will benefit from being able to find music based on mood thus reducing search times, increasing the variety of choice,
and making better selections. Tools for domestic use may be developed, such as creating playlists from personal music collections.
The objective of project BERTI (Biomedical implant with Exceptional Resistance to Tribo-bio-corrosion and with Inherent antimicrobial properties) is to develop an innovative joint replacement with a coating that minimises polyethylene and metal wear debris, prevents metal ion release and promotes the release of antimicrobial agents. The project will determine a method that establishes drivers for the detrimental responses to wear debris observed in patients. This information will be used to optimise a recently develop physical-vapour deposition coating that minimises wear and tribo-bio-corrosion while delivering an antimicrobial agent. In addition, the project will establish a test for patient susceptibility to ions release from implants. This will help identify patient cohorts who would benefit most from the novel coated implants, and will deliver to them, and to the wider population, a world-leading joint replacement with exceptional biocompatibility, longevity and antimicrobial properties. Project BERTI will ultimately increase the longevity of orthopaedic implants, reducing the number of revision surgeries, benefiting the UK and wider economy, and the patient.
ATHENE
Project overview
1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
1.1. Partners
• Queen Mary University of London (Centre for Health Sciences and Innovation Centre)
• University of Manchester
• Newham University Hospital Trust
• Policy Research Institute for Ageing and Ethnicity
• Graphnet Health
• Philips
• Tynetec
• Roke Manor
• Academic specialist consultants Guy Dewsbury and Mark Rouncefield
1.2. Project requirements
This study seeks to use ethnographic methods to illuminate the assisted living needs of older people in a socio-economically deprived and ethnically diverse area of London (Newham). The goal is to inform a new, person-focused methodology for designing assisted living technologies (ALTs). The absolute and relative numbers of frail, chronically sick and dependent older people are predicted to rise sharply in the next 20 years, and their ethnic mix will become much more diverse. Up to now, research into ALTs has largely been technology-focused (i.e. has sought to develop particular technologies and then promote their adoption). In contrast, this study is ‘technology-agnostic’ in the sense that we do not have a particular technology (or even class of technologies) in mind. Rather, we seek to produce a richer understanding of the complex and diverse living experiences and care needs of older people and to explore how industry, the NHS, social services and third sector can work with the older people themselves to produce ‘user-centred’ ALT designs to meet these needs.
1.3. Aims and objectives
Aim
To facilitate, through a series of enabling activities and interventions targeted at key stakeholders, the effective planning and implementation of assisted living technology (ALT) programmes for older people and to generate research insights from this work.
Strategic objectives
1. Build a rich picture of assisted living needs and preferences of older people from all ethnic groups, with significant but not exclusive focus on black and minority ethnic (BME) groups.
2. Identify key challenges faced by industry in designing and developing useful and useable ALTs for such groups.
3. Identify key challenges faced by health and social service providers and third-sector organisations for planning and delivering ALT programmes
4. Drawing on (1) and (2), devise capacity building programmes for industry and service providers in user-centred design methods for ALTs.
5. Drawing on (1) and (3), devise guidelines for planners and managers of ALT development projects and programmes.
Research questions
1. What needs of older people from different ethnic groups might be met by targeted introduction and use of ALTs?
2. What methods and tools are most effective for achieving user-centred design and development of ALTs for such groups?
3. What enabling activities are necessary at micro (i.e. individuals, families), meso (i.e. health and social service providers, ALT producers, community) and macro (i.e. health and social service policy makers, sector incentives) level to promote the design and successful uptake and use of ALTs, and how might these be supported?
1.4. Work breakdown
Operational objectives
1. Extend a preliminary literature review.
2. Establish a steering group with industry, NHS and third sector representation.
3. Work with the ALT industry and health and social care providers to analyse critical knowledge gaps in relation to assisted living in elders.
4. Informed by this analysis, undertake individual case studies of 30-50 older people with assisted living needs in a deprived, multi-ethnic London borough, using a data collection methodology based on ethnography and enhanced by tools such as cultural probes.
5. Feed emerging findings back to the steering group iteratively so as to produce an ongoing dialogue which informs further data collection.
6. Work with up to 10 ‘paradigm cases’ to develop ‘candidate’ ALT services, using these to pilot and refine user-centred design and development methodologies.
7. Draw lessons on how to involve older people from all ethnic groups in user-centred design.
8. Produce accessible summaries of findings and conclusions for policymakers, practitioners, academics, the ALT industry and service users.
9. Produce a set of enabling activities and resources for ALT adoption targeted to meet the needs of key stakeholders.
1.5. Work package description (distribution of roles)
Study design
Participatory action research / co-design informed by ethnography in the home and by partnerships with ALT and service providers. It will have two phases:
Phase 1 (1-12 months): Ethnographic studies of 30-50 cases to map the complex healthcare, social care and socio-cultural needs of older people and their carers from a range of ethnic groups using bilingual researchers and advocates as needed. Use these findings to inform a draft methodology for socio-technical co-design in ALT development.
Phase 2 (13-24 months): Work with up to 10 selected cases to bring together the older person, carers, NHS and social care organisations, third-sector organisations (including community and faith-based groups) and ALT providers to test and refine the draft methodology. Investigate how to embed the design and development of ALTs into organisational systems, processes and routines.
Work packages
1. Set-up. Recruit staff, establish steering group; finalise ethics approval; site-specific R&D paperwork; prepare information packs for participating organisations; prepare information packs for research participants; refine research methods, pilot data collection techniques; supplement preliminary literature review with additional references.
2. Ethnography. Recruit 30-50 cases; collect and analyse data; summarise findings.
3. Co-design. Recruit 5-10 cases; undertake cycles of data collection, design, analysis.
4. Dissemination. Assist participating organisations in documenting local lessons; write and present academic outputs (papers, conferences); co-produce guidance for different stakeholders including industry; website design and updates; industry training course on effective co-design with older users.
Metal on metal prostheses are currently an exciting new area for resurfacing and total hip replacements, reducing problems of osteolysis associated with standard metal on polymer prostheses. However, problems have been identified related to the biological response to the metal particles and metal ion release. The objective of this project is to develop and test the properties of new nanocomposite, wear and ion release resistant PVD coatings, to meet the rigorous demands of the hip joint application. Performance will be assessed on a hip wear simulator to evaluate the longevity of the surface modifications, whilst the nanoparticles generated will be evaluated using state-of-the-art analytical methods. In addition to reducing wear and ion release, the coatings will be designed to offer novel multifunctional benefits of self-lubrication, antimicrobial properties & improved bedding in of bearing surfaces.
Periodontal diseases are inflammatory conditions that affect the supporting tissues of teeth and can lead to destruction of the bone support and ultimately tooth loss if untreated. The condition is treated locally by scaling and root planing. Progression of periodontitis is usually site specific but is not uniform, and currently there are no accurate clinical methods for distinguishing sites where there is active disease progression from sites that are quiescent. This results in a significant number of, unnecessary and costly treatments of non progressing periodontal sites, which potentially cause additional damage to the tooth attachment.
In this project, a generic low cost non-invasive sensor system capable of more accurately identifying periods of active inflammation at point of care, has been developed. The work has resulted in a disposable sensor strip and a prototype meter capable of measuring, within a few minutes, the activity of four newly identified host and bacterial biomarkers of active inflammation in a fluid volume of 1.5 ul. The biosensor developed in this project is designed to significantly improve the efficiency of periodontitis targeted treatment options.
We have found that pulses, as used in our Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology, may travel as soliton waves over power cables. We believe this will enable the development of low cost "intra-building" ubiquitous communications systems that will provide the "glue" for pervasive computing. Further research is needed to determine the operating parameters and the design of practical devices.
Our target is to produce a design for embedding into silicon that would enable real data rates of over 1Gb/second "goodput", 100 x better than WiFi, facilitating the transmission of video, phone, internet, and continuous monitoring without the need for a new cable network. The initial technology will be provided by Artimi, Queen Mary, University of London will carry out research and testing, and COE Ltd will build a proof of principle test unit for a real life application.