September 2019
TCT Awards 2019 Who will be this year’s lucky winners?
The impact on Britain’s burgeoning fintechs
Mickael Bougis
Flaregames’ Vice President Marketing talks all things gaming!
DIARY DATES IFA 6-11 September
Berlin ExpoCenter City, Berlin, Germany
Future Port Prague 10-11 September
Industrial Palace, Prague, Czech Republic
Cloud Foundry Europe Summit 2019 11-12 September
World Forum, The Hague, The Netherlands
Deep Learning Summit 2019 19-20 September 155 Bishopsgate, London, UK
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elcome to the ‘back to school’ issue of Digital Innovation Magazine. With many of us having enjoyed a relaxing break over the summer holidays, September often marks the start of new challenges and a fresh approach. With this in mind, we interviewed Mickael Bougis, Vice President Marketing at mobile games publisher, Flaregames (p38). Mickael is a forward-thinker in the gaming world, and as a 30-something female, it was fascinating for me to learn more about one of the industry’s biggest growing audiences (it’s not what I had expected!). Plus, we found out all about the integral role of the talent-filled studios in the development of the world’s most popular games that have now become part of our everyday lives. With Brexit on the horizon (possibly?), we also explore the expected outcomes for Britain’s burgeoning fintech scene (p6), along with the latest advancements in 3D printing… Think skin and bone samples for medical use in space (p18)! And that’s not forgetting our rundown of some of the category finalists of this year’s TCT Awards (p70), new innovations in robotics that have seen the creation of tiny ant-like machines (p62), plus the September edition’s celebrated start-up of the month (p78). Enjoy the issue!
Editor Anna McMahon
Director Danielle Harris
editorial@digitalinnovationeu.com
d.harris@digitalinnovationeu.com
Senior Digital Designer Daniel May
Director Tom Barnes
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+44 (0) 203 890 1189 enquiries@digitalinnovationeu.com All rights reserved. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of material published in Digital Innovation Magazine. However, the company cannot accept responsibility for the claims made by advertisers or contributors, or inaccurate material supplied by advertisers. Digital Innovation is a trading name of HBL Europe Ltd. Company Registration Number: 10933897. Company Registered in England and Wales
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Meet Mickael Bougi Marketing at F
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Is Brexit bad news for Britain’s fintech scene?
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3D-printed skin and bone for pioneering use in space Latest Facebook research into a device that reads your mind 4
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5G tech force behin
is, Vice President Flaregames
hnology – the driving nd autonomous vehicles
Celebrating some of the finalists of this year’s TCT Awards
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British start-up, Watr, has produced a smart water monitor with a difference
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Researchers in Switzerland have developed robots inspired by ants 5
FINTECH
We explore the effect th to have on the UK’s bur
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hat leaving the EU is likely rgeoning fintech scene.
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LONDON HAS EARNED ITS TITLE, 'GLOBAL FINTECH CITY', boasting a strong financial centre for successful tech start-ups in the UK, and a key regulator of the global fintech community. Brexit is one of the most important changes in UK history and is sparking debate
over the future of the fintech industry, with many financial institutes thinking of moving operations overseas. Here, we outline the key factors which may affect the future of fintech, both inside and outside the UK.
POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH As with many other markets in the UK, fintech has an unpredictable future in the unknown fate of the EU single market and other trade deals. There will be a dramatic change whatever the outcome of the deals negotiated, and one major impact will be the way UK businesses interact with other EU states, both for trade and investment.
In the financial services industry with specific focus on fintech, one major consequence of Brexit will be the change to the cross-border validity of UK authorisations in EU member states. One benefit of being a member of the EU is that many UK authorised firms are capable of 'passporting' their UK authorisation to continue to provide regulated financial
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services within the EU. This has not only enabled established UK financial services to expand their business overseas, but also provided non-EU businesses with a base in the UK to provide regulated services to the rest of the EU.
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If there are no specific agreements as part of the UK negotiations with the EU, there could be an end of transferable, cross-border authorisation out of the UK, and this will have a drastic impact on fintech in two ways:
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MARKET ACCESS UK companies' ability to scale may suffer when the ease of access to EU markets is restricted. Without the passport, fintechs may need to seek authorisation in each of the states where they wish to operate, making market access more expensive and heavily administrative.
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INVESTMENT Another effect of limited market access would be the decline of foreign investment into the fintech community, who, without investment, are not able to expand to other countries, and without international expansion, they may become less attractive for investors and other stakeholders. Consequently, the UK’s fintech sector, and the surge of start-ups choosing the UK as their primary headquarters, could be tempted to move to other jurisdictions to develop their offerings where financial backing is less uncertain.
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BREXIT DEADLINE
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With easy access to the EU market taken away, and separate compliance for UK and EU operations, investors and fintech companies may look at places like Berlin or Dublin for their HQ because of time zone benefits, common languages, and a diverse workforce. A loss
of revenue from UK fintechs, as well as financial ‘incumbents’ becoming more inclined to acquire or merge with tech companies outside of the UK, could lead to a potential loss of investment over the coming years.
"WHILE LONDON REMAINS A GLOBAL FINANCIAL CENTRE, IT IS NOT THE ONLY GLOBAL CENTRE IN THE WORLD, AND AS SUCH, IT SHOULD BE ABLE TO RETAIN ITS CROWN WHEN IT IS NO LONGER PART OF EUROPE"
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FREE MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE Your people are your key assets, and another key factor governing the success or failure of UK’s fintech industry post-Brexit will be their ability to continue harnessing talent in technological expertise from EU countries and beyond. UK fintech companies employ the services of developers from countries all over the EU, and the growth of the sector is reliant on continuing to attract the bestskilled labour for those businesses,
be that from the UK or abroad. To impose limitations on the free movement of workers into the UK following Brexit may therefore be to put the UK’s fintech sector at a disadvantage, as it becomes more administratively complicated and expensive to employ foreign talent. As suggested, this could, in turn, become a motive for fintech companies to turn their backs on the UK in favour of alternative EU fintech centres.
IMPACT ON UK FINANCIAL SERVICES The effects of Brexit, and its impact on fintech, are unlikely to be felt by the technology side of the industry in isolation. Indeed, it is arguable
that the effects on financial services generally will be of greater significance. The potential negative effects outlined above may impact
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the entire financial services industry, and the UK’s competitiveness as a leading financial services jurisdiction could be weakened. The inability to passport regulatory authorisation from the UK into other EU member states, as well as being outside the EU single market, may cause global banks based in London to reduce or even withdraw their UK presence, as it becomes a less commercially valuable European base. Furthermore, should fintech companies leave the UK, in search of single market access and, ultimately, investment, the innovative and progressive mould of the UK’s financial services that has been building up could fall away.
THE OTHER ARGUMENT However, it’s not all doom and gloom! The truth is that nobody knows exactly what is going to happen, and contingency planning by banks, exchanges and asset managers, combined with recent agreements between UK and EU regulators, mean the industry is pretty well-prepared for the outcome of October 31st. The 14
"THE OVERWHELMI THE INDUSTRY I FINTECH SCENE W STRONG A
And while London remains a global financial centre, it is not the only global centre in the world, and as such, it should be able to retain its crown when it is no longer part of Europe. While many euro-specific trading operations have moved out, global trading has stayed firmly in London, which is promising. In fact, most fintechs have succeeded despite uncertainty surrounding Brexit. But, whatever the outcome of negotiations, navigating Brexit will be a tough task, and Europe’s fintechs must get serious about the possibility of a no-deal. Should a deal be reached, there will be a so-called transition period between the Brexit deadline and the official departure from the EU to iron out operations, but fintechs must be prepared for all possible contingencies. In conclusion, it is perhaps too early and far too pessimistic to predict a fintech exodus from London.
Source: innovation enterprise
ING VIEW WITHIN IS THAT THE UK WILL REMAIN AS AS EVER"
overwhelming view within the industry is that the UK fintech scene will remain as strong as ever due to the talent pool, strong foundations, investment funds available, tax breaks, and the ability to get things done, as it has proved over the decades. The global infrastructure, connectivity, supportive regulation and capabilities will not simply disappear overnight.
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Photo credit: ESA
3D PRINTING
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MISSION A European Space Agency project has produced its first 3D-printed skin and bone samples for use on space expeditions.
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A JOURNEY THROUGH SPACE REQUIRES LOTS OF RESOURCES, AND THERE’S ONLY SO MUCH ‘STUFF’ THAT CAN BE CARRIED CONSIDERING WEIGHT AND SPATIAL LIMITS, MAKING IT ESPECIALLY DIFFICULT TO CARRY TOOLS AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES.
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mission to Mars, for example, takes several months, and they wouldn’t be able to turn back if an astronaut were to suffer a burn or bone fracture.
GROWING BONE Photo credit: University Hospital of Dresden Technical University
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While 3D printing has been used in the aerospace industry for some time, a new experiment could finally solve the issue of medical treatment in space. Scientists at the University Hospital of Dresden Technical University (TUD) (part of the project
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consortium, together with OHB System AG as the prime contractor, and life sciences specialist, Blue Horizon) have now produced the first bio-printed skin and bone samples for use in space, serving as a crucial development in both the medical and bio-printing fields. Even though treating patients with 3D-printed skin or bones is still in its early stages, the technique is particularly important for space missions, where the human body is unable to heal quite as quickly as on earth. Tommaso Ghidini, head of the division at the European Space Agency that oversees the project, said, “In the case of burns, for instance, brand new skin could be bio-printed instead of being grafted from elsewhere on the astronaut’s body, doing secondary damage that
SKIN SAMPLE Photo credit: ESA – SJM Photography
may not heal easily in the orbital environment.” Astronauts suffering injuries in space has long been a problem with no easy solution. Medical supplies are severely scarce, so perhaps 3D printing can help? Scientists were faced with the unique challenge of creating a technique that would
WATCH HOW 3D SKIN PRINTING WORKS
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"MORE NEEDS TO BE DON THINGS WORK IN THE ENVIRONMENT, SO VARI TECHNOLOGY GET OPTIMI
ESA – SJM Photography
Nieves Cub
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NE WITH LESS, TO MAKE CHALLENGING SPACE IOUS ELEMENTS OF THE ISED AND MINIATURISED"
bo from TUD
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"WITH 3D PRINTING PROGRESSING STEADILY ON EARTH, THIS PROJECT IS THE FIRST TO BE ADOPTED OFF THE PLANET" still work in zero gravity. The team therefore thickened human blood plasma, which is used to bio-print skin cells, with plant material, so it could work in the altered gravity environment. Similarly, to 3D-print bones, they added calcium phosphate bone cement to printed human stem cells. The calcium phosphate works as a structuresupporting material, absorbed by the body as the bone grows.
Nieves Cubo, from TUD, said, “Skin cells can be bio-printed using human blood plasma as a nutrientrich ‘bio-ink’ – which would be easily accessible from the mission crewmembers. However, plasma has a highly fluid consistency, making it difficult to work with in altered gravitational conditions. We therefore developed a modified recipe by adding methylcellullose and alginate to increase the viscosity of the substrate. Astronauts could obtain these substances from plants and algae respectively, a feasible solution for a self-contained space expedition. “Producing the bone sample involved printing human stem cells with a similar bio-ink composition, with the addition of a calcium phosphate bone cement as a structure-
CLOSE-UP OF GROWING BONE Photo credit: University Hospital of Dresden Technical University
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WATCH HOW 3D BONE PRINTING WORKS
supporting material, which is subsequently absorbed during the growth phase.” The university’s materials are now ready for testing with the European Space Agency, while this latest work with space bio-printing coincides with many other experiments that are currently taking place. NASA, for example, has long been conducting additive manufacturing tests on rockets, particularly those that utilise bio-printing methods. The European Space Agency project also looks into what kind of on-board facilities astronauts would require for operations. Bio-printing of this type may need sterile surgical rooms and equipment for astronauts to perform the 3D printing on their own, not to mention methods of supply storage. This latest experiment holds a great
amount of potential for not just space exploration endeavours, but also for medical bio-printing as a science. And with 3D printing progressing steadily on earth, this project is the first to be adopted off the planet. Tommaso said, “It’s a typical pattern we see when promising terrestrial technologies are first harnessed for space, ranging from cameras to microprocessors. More needs to be done with less, to make things work in the challenging space environment, so various elements of the technology get optimised and miniaturised. “Similarly, we hope that the work we do with 3D bio-printing will help accelerate its progress, hastening its widespread availability (and) bringing it to people even sooner.” 27
HUMAN BRAIN
Facebook is fundin interface (BCI) resear that reads y
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ng brain-computer rch to create a device your mind.
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Facebook has revealed that is has bee University of California, San Francisc scientists have been developing ‘spee people are trying to say by a or many, the idea may sound like stuff of sci-fi, but the company’s plan for a non-invasive, wearable, brain-reading computer interface is making good progress. It could ultimately allow those who have lost the ability to vocalise words to communicate in real time through their thoughts, giving them a whole new lease of life. Speech neuroscientist, Eddie Chang, who is working on the research, said, “Currently, patients with speech loss due to paralysis are limited to spelling words out very slowly using residual eye movements or muscle twitches to control a computer interface. But, in many cases, information needed to produce fluent speech is still there in their brains.” The technology being developed will allow them to express themselves. To reach its goal of creating an effective and reliable BCI, Chang’s team, together with postdoctoral researcher, David Moses, conducted
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en financing extensive research at the co (UCSF), on human volunteers, where ech decoders’ able to determine what analysing their brain signals. research using sheets of electrodes implanted into the brains of three volunteers at the UCSF Epilepsy Center. The scientists were able to listen in in real time as the subjects heard questions read from a list and spoke simple answers. One question was, “From 0 to 10, how much pain are you in?” The system was able to detect both the question and the response of 0 to 10 far better than chance. Another question asked was which musical instrument they preferred, and the volunteers were able to answer ‘piano’ and ‘violin’. The experiments were geared toward developing a method of instantly identifying the volunteers’ spoken responses based only on the activity of their brain. After much effort, the researchers reached a point where they were able to see – on a PC screen – a word or phrase derived from brain activity as the participant spoke it.
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David Moses, Postdocto
“We hope to increase well as the accuracy translate from brain
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Type a message...
oral Researcher
e the flexibility as y of what we can n activity�
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Although the technology is currently only able to recognise a limited number of words, David said, “We hope to increase the flexibility as well as the accuracy of what we can translate from brain activity.” Eddie added, “With the advances we’ve seen in the field over the past decade, it became clear that we might be able to leverage these discoveries to help patients with speech loss, which is one of the most devastating consequences of neurological damage.” With the latest research offering insights into the development of future AR glasses that let users control music or interact in virtual reality using their thoughts, Facebook Vice President, Andrew Bosworth, commented that it could help the company build “a noninvasive, wearable device that lets people type just by imagining what they want to say.” He added, “Our progress shows real potential in how future inputs and interactions with AR glasses could one day look.”
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To this end, Facebook has also been funding work on systems that listen in on the brain from outside the skull, using fibre optics or lasers to measure changes in blood flow, similar to an MRI machine. Such blood-flow patterns represent only a small part of what’s going on in the brain, but they could be enough to distinguish between a limited set of commands. “Being able to recognise even a handful of imagined commands, like ‘home’, ‘select’, and ‘delete’, would provide entirely new ways of interacting with today's VR systems – and tomorrow's AR glasses,” Facebook wrote in a blog post. But, this means we are going to need some rules – and fast – about how brain data is collected, stored and used. How can we manage people’s privacy and data in the way that they would want? Our responsibility to ensure that these technologies work for everyone begins today.
Andrew Bosworth, Facebook Vice President
“Our progress shows real potential in how future inputs and interactions with AR glasses could one day look� Type a message... 35
“The Digital Innovation team are incredibly professional and it was my pleasure to be part of the August 2018 edition. At each stage, Danielle and her team were highly prepared and very thorough. I was impressed with the level of diligence and attention to detail that they paid throughout the whole process. It was good to work with a team who had an extremely high level of contextual expertise in the industry in terms of breadth and depth, and they had clearly done their research properly. I wish them every success and it was a real career high to be involved with the project, and I’d like to thank the Digital Innovation team for everything they have done for me” – Jen Stirrup, Director – Data Relish
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THE INNOVATION GAME Mickael Bougis, Vice President Marketing at mobile games publisher, Flaregames, shares an insight into the importance of the studio/publisher relationship, as well as the impact of an unexpected, new audience of gamers.
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FLAREGAMES IS AN AWARD-W SPECIALISING IN FUN, HIGH-Q MOBILE GAMES FOR ANDROID Mickael BOUGIS Vice President Marketing
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WINNING GAMES PUBLISHER QUALITY, FREE-TO-PLAY D OR IPHONE. est known for publishing Zombie Gunship Survival, Nonstop Chuck Norris, Nonstop Knight and Royal Revolt 2, the company works with worldclass developers to bring their titles to market. Mickael Bougis, Vice President Marketing at Flaregames, explained, “The biggest difference between us and other companies is that they have internal developers developing their games. We generally don’t do that. We only work with external studios – so companies of around five to 35 people – who develop their own games. We partner with them to release their games, providing
funding, marketing expertise, as well as technical expertise.” The creation of a game is not as straightforward as you might think. Around 90 per cent of all ideas are generated by the studios, but how does an initial concept come to fruition? Mickael said, “We have business developers who attend all the main gaming conferences in the world. They will see projects at
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“BEING BASED IN EUROPE, WE KN BUTIT’S MUCH MORE DIFFICULTTO WELL WHERE WE ARE NOTPRESEN 42
NOW WHAT’S RELEVANTHERE, TO KNOW WHATIS PERFORMING Mickael NT” BOUGIS 43
various different stages. Often, they are nowhere near finished, but sometimes, they are really advanced and you can play the game for a few hours. The developers select about five or six games they have seen, and present them in a meeting after the event. If we decide to go forward with them, we will plan a ‘green light’ meeting, where we will really start to make the investment.” The gaming industry has evolved considerably in recent years, and as a result, it has faced numerous challenges. Mickael explained, “The biggest change we have seen
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in the market is bigger studios buying up smaller studios, so those companies are no longer independent, and the number of companies we can work with is shrinking every year. In 2014 and 2015, it was really easy to make copycats, and we had a huge lack of innovation in the market. "The market at the time was also much more fragmented between Europe, Asia and the US. If you saw something working well in the US, you could replicate it in Europe, and nobody would really notice. You can’t do that anymore, so there is a real drive today for
“FLAREGAM WITH APP AN ITS MARKET CUTTING-ED
WATCH THE NONSTOP CHUCK NORRIS TRAILER
MES PARTNERS NNIE FOR TDATA AND EDGE INSIGHTS”
innovation. The games that enter the top thousand are those with different gameplay, different style, different everything. Of course, making those games is harder and much more costly because you take more risks and you’re making more mistakes. After an acquisition, you don’t usually take as much risk because the company usually asks the studio to do exactly what they were doing before, so the concentration of the market partially explains this lack of innovation.” With the popularity of Candy Crush and Pokémon GO in recent years, the industry has 45
experienced a new audience of ‘gamers’, namely middleaged women who have started playing games on their mobile phones for the first time. So, how have games developers responded to this boom in mobile gaming? Mickael said, “If you want to be successful, you have to be really innovative to capture people’s attention. "Pokémon GO marked a change two or three years ago at a time when everyone in the industry was talking about AR and VR. People said they wanted to go there, but it was very complicated. The way that Pokémon did this was to make it really easy for anyone, including my mum, to
play. Usually, the beauty is in simplicity.” The first wave of this new type of gamer coincided with the launch of Candy Crush in 2012. There are three billion mobile phone users worldwide, and 800 million play Candy Crush, which is more than 10 per cent of the global population! Mickael added, “When you define a gamer, you usually think about sessions per day and how they are playing. "Some of these people are playing longer than teenagers! The industry has a real problem in recognising this new audience of middle-aged women who have more time
WATCH THE ZOMBIE GUNSHIP SURVIVAL TRAILER 46
“IF YOU WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL,YOU HAVE TO BE REALLY INNOVATIVE TO CAPTURE PEOPLE’S ATTENTION” Mickael BOUGIS
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and more disposable income. It’s not an audience that most games developers understand.” It is not just external funding that Flaregames provides the studios – the relationship is very much dependent on each individual studio’s strengths and weaknesses. Mickael said, “We might be working with a larger studio which has the funding but doesn’t necessarily have the skillset. Most of the time, they lack the marketing skills and only want to concentrate on making the game. We have
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some studios that are fascinated about marketing, while others want us to do 100 per cent of it. There is not one single recipe for success.� Flaregames partners with App Annie for its market data and cutting-edge insights, which Mickael believes have been crucial for understanding how the company is placed in the market. He said, “App Annie provides real-time data to all the mobile phone companies in the world. We can access this data and the revenues of all our competitors worldwide, allowing us to detect any trends in the market. It would be really difficult to do our job without it. It is also global, which is very important. Being based in Europe, we know what’s relevant
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Todd ENGLISH Flaregames CEO here, but it’s much more difficult to know what is performing well where we are not present.” Having launched Nonstop Knight 2 in the last few weeks (Flaregames’ biggest franchise to date), the company is now turning its hand to creating games for the Warhammer brand. Mickael added, “Working with such an iconic franchise in the gaming industry is really big news for us.” We look forward to seeing the result! For further information on Flaregames, visit www.flaregames.com 51
5G NEWS
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BRITAIN'S AUTONOMOUS CAR NETWORK 5G technology is being used to drive the future of motoring.
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IN THE RACE FOR SELF-DRIVING VE THE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT M UNDERPIN THEM IS JUST AS IMPO AND 5G MOBILE NETWORKS HOLD hat’s because autonomous cars don’t just have to drive themselves; they must also be capable of communicating with other vehicles and infrastructure. This inevitably leads to collaboration between automotive and telecoms companies. And, while the two industries are used to working together, the scale of cooperation required to get autonomous vehicles on the road is unprecedented.
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Helping to kick-start this collaboration is the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), which recently allocated £4.1million in seed funding to AutoAir. This project sees a number of telecoms and automotive companies unite in the development of 5G systems for connected and autonomous cars. AutoAir is headquartered at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, the UK’s hub for car development and testing.
EHICLES, MUST ORTANT, THE KEY.
The amount the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) allocated to AutoAir
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The project has seen 43 miles of test track fitted with scores of 5G base stations, and 12 miles of fibre optic cable. Paul Senior, CEO of Dense Air Networks, one of the key AutoAir players, said, “5G is about providing connectivity beyond your mobile phone – connectivity for your car, for industry, for manufacturing. The idea is a really simple one. How can we send information from the cars in front of us further down the road back to the cars behind?”
of test track fitted with scores of 5G base stations
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At Millbrook’s high-speed test track, you can see a McLaren 570S Spider blast past at 150mph. Such an impressive sight in itself, but this testbed McLaren is transmitting one gigabit – or one billion pieces of information – per second! Brendan O’Reilly, CTO at Telefonica, added, “5G will have a greater impact from a tech point of view than the introduction of electricity.” He admits that this is a “big statement”, but points out that 5G will see “millions of connected, monitored, managed devices in a safe, secure and reliable environment.”
And it gets even more impressive. Millbrook’s President, Alex Burns, explained, “That handover your mobile sometimes struggles with when you’re driving at 70mph – it’s switching (between cell towers) every few minutes on the motorway. The McLaren is doing that every two seconds at 150mph.”
“THIS TESTBED MCLAREN IS TRANSMITTING ONE GIGABIT – OR ONE BILLION PIECES OF INFORMATION – PER SECOND!” 58
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CAV industry is set to be worth nearly a trillion pounds globally by 2035
Given the vast amounts of data being transferred, the complexity of the connections, and the speeds modern cars can achieve, latency is one of the big enemies of future autonomous car development.
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(to) reduce your speed (and) the emergency services can react?”
Alex added, “We’ve achieved a lot. In nine months, we’ve built a hyper-dense 5G network with moving vehicles going through it. This is ground-breaking stuff; it’s right at the leading edge.”
Alex also believes that once consumers can see what autonomous cars can offer, they’re likely to be convinced of the advantages. He explained, “Driving in traffic is tedious. You can’t free yourself from that at the moment; you still have to be paying attention, you can’t be eyes-off. But it’s not so far away in certain circumstances and places.”
He admits the development of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) is driven by a “tech push rather than a demand pull” from consumers, but says safety lies at the heart of everything, adding, “If there’s an accident around the bend, how do you get pre-warning of that, so the cars ahead are automatically warning you
The closeness with which the UK automotive and telecoms businesses are working together speaks volumes about how seriously people are taking autonomous cars. The CAV industry is set to be worth nearly a trillion pounds globally by 2035 – and experts estimate the UK is four or five years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to 5G tech.
“THE UK IS FOUR OR FIVE YEARS AHEAD OF THE REST OF THE WORLD WHEN IT COMES TO 5G TECH”
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ESA – SJM Photography
ROBOTICS
AN ANT'S L
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LIFE
A team of researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland has developed tiny 10-gram robo-ants that can jump, communicate with each other and work together.
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INDIVIDUALLY, ANTS HAV MUCH STRENGTH AND HOWEVER, AS A CO USE COMPLEX S COMPLETE SO TASKS AND PREDAT
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AVE ONLY SO D INTELLIGENCE. OLONY, THEY CAN STRATEGIES TO OPHISTICATED D EVADE LARGER TORS. t EPFL, robotics researchers in Professor Jamie Paik's laboratory have developed tiny robots that are inspired by ants. They display minimal physical intelligence on an individual level, but they are able to communicate and act collectively. Despite being simple in design and weighing only 10 grams, each robot has multiple locomotion modes to jump, crawl and navigate any type of surface. They can communicate with each other,
assign roles among themselves, and complete complex tasks together; collectively, they can quickly detect and overcome obstacles and move objects much larger and heavier than themselves. ROBOTS INSPIRED BY TRAP-JAW ANTS These three-legged, T-shaped origami robots are called Tribots. They can be assembled in only a few minutes by folding a stack of thin, multimaterial sheets, making them suitable for mass production. Completely autonomous and untethered, Tribots are 65
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Zhenishbek Zhakypov and Jamie PaikŠ Marc Delachaux / 2019 EPFL
”SINCE THEY CAN BE MANUFACTURED AND DEPLOYED IN LARGE NUMBERS, HAVING SOME ‘CASUALTIES’ WOULD NOT AFFECT THE SUCCESS OF THE MISSION” Jamie Paik 67
Jamie Paik presenting at the TED2019 conference in Vancouver
equipped with infrared and proximity sensors for detection and communication purposes. They could accommodate even more sensors depending on the application.
Zhenishbek Zhakypov, the first author of the research, said, “Their movements are modelled on those of Odontomachus ants. These insects normally crawl, but to escape a predator, they snap their powerful jaws together to jump from leaf to leaf.” The Tribots replicate this catapult mechanism through an elegant origami design that combines multiple shape-memory alloy actuators. As a result, a single robot can produce five distinct locomotion gaits – vertical jumping, horizontal jumping, somersaulting to clear obstacles, walking on textured terrain and crawling on flat surfaces – just like these creatively resilient ants. ROLES: LEADER, WORKER AND EXPLORER Despite having the same anatomy, each robot is assigned
THEY COULD LOCATE A TARGET QUICKLY OVER A LARGE SURFACE WITHOUT RELYING ON GPS OR VISUAL FEEDBACK. 68
a specific role depending on the situation. ‘Explorers’ detect physical obstacles in their path, such as objects, valleys and mountains. After detecting an obstacle, they inform the rest of the group. Then, the ‘leader’ gives the instructions. The ‘workers’, meanwhile, pool their strength to move objects. Professor Paik said, “Each Tribot, just like Odontomachus ants, can have different roles. However, they can also take on new roles instantaneously when faced with a new mission or an unknown environment, or even when other members get lost. This goes beyond what the real ants can do.”
a target quickly over a large surface without relying on GPS or visual feedback. Professor Paik added, “Since they can be manufactured and deployed in large numbers, having some ‘casualties’ would not affect the success of the mission. With their unique collective intelligence, our tiny robots can demonstrate better adaptability to unknown environments; therefore, for certain missions, they would outperform larger, more powerful robots.”
FUTURE APPLICATIONS In practical situations, such as an emergency search mission, Tribots could be deployed en masse. And thanks to their multi-locomotive and multi-agent communication capabilities, they could locate
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AWA R D F I N A L I S T S
The winners of the TCT Awards 2019 will be announced later this month at a special ceremony held at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham. Here, we take a look at the finalists.
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elebrating the innovators, technologies and collaborators behind the leading examples of additive manufacturing, 3D printing, design and engineering across the globe, the TCT Awards are set to showcase these
world-leading projects, as well as recognising the industry’s most influential and impactful members. Finalists for this year's awards have been announced, with over 70 finalists across 15 categories... Here are some of the nominees!
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TCT Aerospace Application Award 2019 nnovations and developments in the aerospace industry are renowned for ultimately benefitting all other engineering industries, from developing new and groundbreaking materials, to advanced
electronics and automation. It is therefore unsurprising that the aerospace industry has been a key adopter of 3D technologies, and we are excited to see what pioneering applications have been released this year.
Etihad Interior Panel Tech Lead: BigRep Gmbh • Partners: Etihad Airways Engineering A full-scale 3D print of an Airbus A320 sidewall has been produced with a unique auto-calibration scanning and printing process utilising an industrial robotic arm. This proof-of-concept Etihad Aircraft panel features sensors and health monitoring systems 3D printed directly onto the double-curved surface of the cabin interior, displaying huge potential in non-planar additive manufacturing with part consolidation and functional integration.
Fixed Wing UAV Tech Lead: Custom Prototypes UAV on Demand is a proof-of-concept project to 3D-print an entire fixed wing airframe in one piece to create a fully functional UAV with integrated moving control surfaces. This unique project showcases the potential for custom drones to be produced quickly and directly in the field for a particular assignment.
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Retrofitted Seats Tech Lead: BigRep Gmbh • End User: Dassault Systèmes Using design for large-format FFF technology, the retro seat has been developed from an existing framework to create a new seat with customisable cover components and integrated technologies. The retrofitted seat saves 50 per cent of the original seat weight and enables numerous part consolidation, leading to added structural integrity and a reduction in assembly time.
Rocket Engine Combustion Chamber Tech Lead: Frazer-Nash Manufacturing • End User: Skyrora Partners: Renishaw Using AM as a reliable manufacturing process for the creation of complex cooling channels has allowed a more efficient rocket engine to be designed and produced at lower cost than conventional engines. Efficient engines not only reduce the cost of launching satellites into orbit, but they also reduce the amount of exhaust gases (including CO₂) that are released into the atmosphere.
VeriPart Digital Supply Chain Tech Lead: Moog Inc • End User: Air New Zealand Partners: Microsoft; ST Engineering In a world-first experiment, Moog’s blockchain enabled VeriPart process was utilised to create a point of use, time of need digital supply chain. The proof of concept had Air New Zealand order a digital aircraft part from Singapore-based ST Engineering. The digital file was immediately sent to an approved printer (Moog) in LA, 3D-printed and installed on an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300 aircraft 30 minutes after landing.
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TCT Automotive Application Award 2019 he automotive industry has benefited from additive manufacturing since its birth over 30 years ago. As one of the first industries to adopt 3D technologies, the
industry has integrated them into its design and development phases, as well as growing their use in the manufacturing phase. We are interested to discover the most recent advancements to this application.
Automated Design of Jigs & Fixtures Tech Lead: Trinckle • End User: Ford Motor Company Partners: Ultimaker B.V. Ford and Trinckle have partnered to enhance the use of AM for the production of labelling jigs and fixtures. Through the development of an internal application using Trinckle’s paramate software, the design of AM jigs has been automated, reducing design time and costs.
Digitally Manufactured End-Use Parts Tech Lead: Carbon • End User: Ford Motor Company Carbon have collaborated with Ford Motor Company to develop Ford’s first digitally manufactured polymer production parts. Each of the three parts developed has a unique reason why AM was the best production route.
Metal F1 Wind tunnel Components Tech Lead: Additive Industries • End User: Sauber Motorsport AG Using metal AM parts in F1 wind tunnel tests, Sauber Engineering has significantly improved the design of aerofoil components for their F1 Alfa Romeo Racing team due to the improved stiffness and repeatability achieved from a metal part over the previously used SLA or SLS parts.
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LED Headlights Tech Lead: Betatype • Partners: Progressive Technology; Renishaw; EOS The laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process has been utilised to produce 384 qualified metal LED headlights in a single build. This was achieved through design expertise and Betatype’s unique optimisation technology to design a part with in-built support features to allow for part stacking without undue thermal stress.
PSPM Ball-Joint Exhaust System Tech Lead: Poly-Shape • End User: Pipo Moteurs PipoMoteurs and Polyshape have partnered to develop a solution to mechanical failures in the exhaust system in extreme Rally and Rallycross competitions. Utilising DFAM, a brand new ball joint exhaust system has been designed with two sliding layers to allow for +/- 10 degrees of movement.
Series-like Car Dashboard Tech Lead: BMW Group BMW have developed a brand new process for validating haptics and assembly forces of a dashboard in the car development process. By replacing the use of prototype and pre-series tooling through the validation phases with the use of SLS lattices with a TPU skin, the quality and reliability of the validation process has been greatly improved.
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TCT Consumer Product Application Award 2019 e use consumer products every day, often taking for granted their impact on our daily lives. Behind each of those products is a product designer, designing the look, feel, function and production route of these products. The use of 3D technologies in the life of a product designer has increased tenfold over the past few years, and as the adoption increases, so do the innovations. So which application is the most innovative for 2019?
Choose Water Tech Lead: Luma iD Ltd • End User: Choose Water Ltd Partners: 3DPRINTUK Choose Water have utilised 3D-printed moulds to develop an important and timely alternative to single-use plastic bottles. The specialist moulds include thousands of tiny holes to allow paper pulp slurry to be shaped and then water extracted to form a solid product. The use of 3DP in place of two-part steel and mesh moulds led to a 90 per cent cost and 75 per cent time saving.
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Home Appliance Spare Parts Tech Lead: Carbon • End User: Riddell Carbon and Riddell have partnered to produce the first ever digitally printed helmet liner for the SpeedFlex Precision Diamond football helmet. Athlete data from Riddell’s proprietary database of five million head impacts was used to create the next-gen head protection, precisely contoured to the athlete’s head and incorporating intricate, bespoke lattice structures with custom energy absorbing materials developed by Carbon.
Precision Diamond Helmet Liner Tech Lead: Spare Parts 3D • End User: Whirlpool EMEA Whirlpool have partnered with Spare Parts 3D to enhance their aftercare services with the use of AM. The DigiPART software was used to perform a catalogue analysis of over 11,000 SKU’s to automatically identify suitability for AM in cases of obsolescence and part shortages. Seven per cent were found to be economical, with the first part now in production.
Titanium Watch Strap Tech Lead: Betatype • End User: Uniform Wares • Partners: Renishaw In collaboration with Betatype, Uniform Wares explored how metal AM could be used to develop and manufacture a new titanium mesh for their straps and bracelets as part of its 2019 watch collection. Through intelligent design and AM process optimisation, the results produced a luxury watch strap that embodies the distinction of the Uniform Wares brand with high quality functionality and less material waste.
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IN THE SP OTLIGHT
START-UP OF THE MONTH The team at Watr has developed a smart digital product that aims to make a positive difference to the world in which we live.
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raditional water monitors are expensive, must be installed by engineers, are operated manually, have limited data output, and are inflexible with either battery or mains power. However, the creative technologists at UK start-up, Watr, have come up with a solution which aims to solve these realworld problems. Watr’s smart water monitor allows you to get the most detailed water quality data available via a Multi-Probe Sensor System,
monitoring water quality at different depths including turbidity, algae, water flow, pH, oxygen reduction potential, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, water level and temperature. It is robust, always connected, self-powered, portable, and easy to install, with a live data dashboard and notification alerts. As a result, it can overcome all those business challenges and withstand even the most extreme conditions of lakes, rivers and reservoirs around the world. Glyn Cotton, CEO and Co-Founder at Watr, said, “WATR’s mission is to have units monitoring water quality in every country in the world by 2022.” What’s more, the team is currently working on additional bolt-on features for phosphate, nitrate,
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“WATR’S MISSION IS TO HAVE UNITS MONITORING WATER QUALITY IN EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD BY 2022”
ammonia, calcium, chloride and salinity, to name a few. Watr also offers three installation options – self-installation, selfinstallation with support, or bespoke installation (for larger corporate network clients or those clients who don’t have the resources to install it themselves). Glyn added, “We are truly passionate about improving water quality globally. Water is our most precious commodity and we need to protect it. The team has worked tirelessly to build and test a cutting-edge product that can be easily used by anyone in the world."
Easy installation – start receiving data within two minutes of opening the box Solar powered – the unit will run indefinitely from the power of the sun Live dashboard – check out all your data in one handy place Notifications – receive real-time alerts to keep you informed of its status Wireless connection – a number of different communication technologies ensure your device stays connected at all times Adaptable – additional sensors can be added for extra readings Customisable – bespoke customisations are available
For further information on Watr, visit www.watr.tech 79